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Old Colonial Houses 
in Maine 



Built Prior to 1776 



b r 
EMMA HUNTINGTON NASON 

Author of "White Sails" and "The Tower 
With Legends and Lyrics" 



AUGUSTA, MAINE 
1908 






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Copyright, 1908 
By Emma Huntington Nason 



Press of 

The Kennebec Journal 

Augusta, Me. 



So 
of life 

Colonial Samea 
of Ammra 



PREFACE 

^■BTTIE sketches in this volume present a brief 
/ record of some of the old colonial houses that 

^^^ are now standing in Maine, and that were built 
prior to 1776. The work does not profess to be 
complete in its lists, nor exhaustive in its details, but 
rather to describe certain buildings that represent the 
development of the early colonial dwelling from the 
ancient log garrison house and first framed cottage to 
the grandest of our colonial mansions, and to give, if 
possible, a brief glimpse into the lives of the people who 
converted these houses into homes. 

Many of the houses now popularly known as "old 
colonial" do not, however, fall within our period; for 
they were not erected until after the Revolution. The 
three decades from 1790 to 1820, during which peace 
and prosperity became assured in Maine, were rich in 
stately homes built on the best colonial models; and 
examples of these houses are now found in nearly all of 
our coast and river towns. Such houses, however, since 
they are not truly colonial, are necessarily excluded from 
our present consideration. 

If the following sketches give to the reader a 
characteristic picture of our early colonial homes and 
of the life of the men and women who dwelt therein, the 
mission of the book will be fulfilled. 

E. H. N. 
Augusta, Maine. 

April 6th, 1908. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

I. — Old Colonial Houses in Kittery. — Bray House. — 
Pepperell Mansion. — Lady Pepperell House. — 
Sparhawk Mansion. — Gerrish Houses. — John 
Bray Deering House. — Kittery Church and Par- 
sonage 3 

II. — Along Crooked Lane and The Newicha wan- 
nock. — Whipple House. — Dennett House. — Frost 
Houses. — Tobey House. — Noah Emery House. — 
Bartlett Houses. — Residence of Dr. Willis. — 
Shapleigh House. — Hamilton, Hayes, and Cushing 
Mansions. — Jewett Mansion. — Other Old Houses 
in South Berwick 19 

III. — Old Houses in York and Kennebunk. — Old 
York Jail. — York Meeting-House. — Mclntyre 
Garrison House. — Judkins Garrison House. — Wil- 
cox Tavern. — Pell, Barrell, and Sewall Mansions. 
— Bradbury House. — Sayward Mansion. — Kenne- 
bunk Garrison House. — Waldo Emerson House. — 
Nevin House and Hoff House, Kennebunkport. . 33 

IV. — The Coast and Inland Towns. — Old Houses in 
Biddeford and Saco. — In Scarborough. — In Port- 
land. — Hugh McLellan House and Codman House, 
Gorham. — Old Broad Tavern, Fickett House, 
Patrick House, and Old Tate House, Stroudwater. 
—Gray House and Shaw House, Standish. — Fox- 
croft and Parsons Homesteads, New Gloucester. — 
Gilman House and Granny Millett House, Yar- 
mouth.— Bagley House, Durham.— Old Red House 
and Rogers Homestead, Topsham. — Squire Dennett 
House and Isaac Jones House, North Bowdoin. — 
Old Houses at Winthrop. — Emery House, Fair- 
field 47 



x Table of Contents 

V. — Fort Halifax. — Founded by Governor Shirley, 
1754. — Extract from Parson Smith's Journal. — 
Life at Fort Halifax. — Colonel Lithgow and His 
Family. — Corner-Stone of Fort Halifax. . . 63 

VI. — FORT WESTERN. — Built by the Plymouth Company, 
1754. — Colonial Days at Fort Western. — A Colonial 
Hero. — Arnold's Sojourn at Fort Western. — 
Famous Guests. — Captain James Howard and His 
Family 77 

VII. — On the River and Harbor Shores. — Major 
Colburn House, Dresden Court-House, Bowman- 
Carney House, Gardiner Homestead, Dumaresq 
House, Peterson House, Sewall House, and 
Crocker House, on the Kennebec. — McKeen and 
Dunlap-Lincoln Houses, Brunswick. — Old Colo- 
nial Furniture in the Houghton Mansion, Bruns- 
wick. — Dunning House, Harpswell. — Orr House, 
Orr's Island. — Marie Antoinette House, on the 
Sheepscot. — Glidden House, Waters House, and 
Tilden Hall House, on the Damariscotta.— Smouse 
House and Old Meeting-House, Waldoborough. — 
Walpole Meeting-House. — Fort William Henry, 
Pemaquid Harbor. — Old Burnham Tavern, 
Machias 9 1 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 



Hall of the Jewett Mansion .... Frotitispiece 



Gable-End of the Pepperell Mansion .... i 

The Bray House 4 

The Pepperell Mansion 8 

Hall of the Lady Pepperell House 12 

The Sparhawk Mansion 14 

Pipe Stave Landing 17 

The Nason-Hamilton Estate 25 

The Jewett Mansion 26 

Upper Hall of the Jewett Mansion 28 ^ 

Colonial Mantelpiece in the Jewett Mansion . . . 31 

Old Wilcox Tavern 38 

The McLellan House 45 

Old Tate House 54 

Fort Halifax 61 

Fort Western 75 

The Dresden Court-House 89 

The Bowman-Carney House 93 

The Dumaresq House 94 

Colonial Furniture in the Houghton Dining-Room . 98 

Colonial Sofa in the Houghton Living-Room . . 100 

Governor Law's Chair and Secretary .... 102 / 

Old Burnham Tavern 104 




w 

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ft 

o 



OLD COLONIAL HOUSES 
IN KITTERY 



"The principles of Pepperell, which in his 
town and state were established as a fact, 
long before the Puritan colonies dreamed of 
them, became the conquering principles in 
founding our government. . . . The scenes 
of which he was so great a part have given 
many a theme for orator, novelist and poet." 

— Frisbee. 



OLD COLONIAL HOUSES IN KITTERY 

^k p# PON a picturesque point of land overlooking one 

m hi of the finest harbors on the Maine coast, there 

JLm stand to-day four historic mansions which taken 

together form the most remarkable group of old 

colonial dwellings now existing in New England. These 

ancient dwellings are the Bray House, the Pepperell 

Mansion, the Lady Pepperell House and the Sparhawk 

Manse. They stand not far apart in the old town of 

Kittery, and represent the successive generations of 

three closely related families remarkable, from the 

earliest settlement of our state, for their integrity, their 

ability, their wealth, their public spirit and their service 

to the country in the most critical time of our colonial 

history. 

Our sister states of New Hampshire and Massa- 
chusetts possess many fine old colonial homes, like the 
Warner House and the Wentworth Mansion at Ports- 
mouth, the Whipple House at Ipswich, the Wayside 
Inn at Sudbury, the Royal House at Medford, the 
Clark House at Lexington, the Adams House and the 
Dorothy Q. House at Quincy; but nowhere do we 
find a group of houses whose interests are so closely 
allied and which are, at the same time, so remarkable 
for their typical colonial architecture, their romantic 
traditions and historic associations. 

It is always the people who build and occupy a 
house that give to it a distinctive atmosphere and 
character. If we wish to know what kind of buildings 



4 Old Colonial Houses 

these old colonial houses were, even a photograph will 
tell the tale ; but if we wish to know what kind of homes 
they were, we must know something of the life that went 
on within their walls. And so, to-day, after a lapse of 
more than two hundred years, if we would restore these 
old-time interiors, we must learn something of the people 
who lived, loved, wrought and died in these famous 
homes of Maine. 

The Bray House is the oldest dwelling-house now 
standing in Kittery. It was built in 1662, by John Bray 
who came to this country from Plymouth, England, 
where, it is said, "he held rich estates." As it now 
stands, the Bray house is evidently only a part of the 
original building, for John Bray, in his will, bequeathed 
the middle part of his house to his son John, the lean-to 
and east room with the chambers over them to his 
daughter Mary, and to his wife, Joan, " the new end of 
my now dwelling-house." This new end and the middle 
room now constitutes the Bray house. It is a plain 
two-story building rather forlorn-looking without, but 
interesting within. Its walls are paneled, its windows 
deeply set and its cupboards quaint and time-worn. Over 
the mantel, in one of the rooms, there is an antique 
picture painted on the wooden panel. It is a harbor 
view, and by some is supposed to be a picture of old 
Plymouth, in England ; others think it may be a picture 
of Louisburg. In its prime, the Bray house must have 
been quite a luxurious abode compared with the common 
dwellings of the period. Court often assembled here, 
and other public meetings were held in the old Bray 
house. 

The master of the Bray house was a prosperous 
merchant and shipwright, and in laying the foundations 
of his house at Kittery Point, he builded more wisely 



In Kittery 5 

than he knew, for he was in reality laying the founda- 
tions of the Pepperell name and fame. The family of 
Bray consisted of his wife, two sons and two daughters. 
One of the latter was the beautiful Margery Bray who 
became the heroine of a romance far-reaching in its 
results. The hero of this romance was none other than 
the young William Pepperell who one day sailed into 
Kittery Cove, in his little vessel, to buy supplies for his 
business on the Isles of Shoals. This young man was 
born at Tavistock, Devonshire, England, in 1646. He 
came of an ancient, but impoverished family, and was 
seeking to build up his fortunes in the new world. He 
had established himself at the Isles of Shoals ; but after 
a few business trips to Kittery Point and a meeting with 
the daughter of John Bray, he decided to remove to the 
mainland where he soon appears as a suitor for the hand 
of the fair Margery. 

The rich and well-established father, however, did 
not at first favor the suit of this poor though ambitious 
young man ; but Pepperell, like Bray, had great business 
ability and soon became so successful that all obstacles to 
his marriage with the fair Margery were removed. A 
simple marriage ceremony took place in the state parlor 
of the old Bray house ; and it is not without a feeling of 
sympathetic interest that we recall this old-time wedding 
in the ancient wainscotted room, with its huge fireplace, 
its quaint windows and antique furniture, and think of 
the bride who stepped forth from this very threshold to 
share with her noble husband the honor of founding the 
house of Pepperell. 

A business partnership was soon formed between 
Bray and his son-in-law whose personal ability speedily 
increased the fortunes of the firm. The wharves and 
warehouses at Kittery Point grew in size and number, and 



6 Old Colonial Houses 

an extensive trade with other ports in this country, and 
also with the West Indies and Europe, brought in large 
profits to the Pepperells. 

At the time of his marriage, a site of land, near the 
Bray house, was granted to Pepperell by his father-in-law 
and there the Pepperell mansion was built in 1682. 
This fine old colonial mansion still stands as a witness 
to the exceptionally hospitable, luxurious and delightful 
social life of this period in the wealthy families of Maine. 
The mistress of the mansion, Margery Bray Pepperell, 
was an unusually beautiful woman, wise, gifted and 
spiritual beyond the women of her generation. She was 
the central figure of a home noted for its culture and 
hospitality. Within her doors, were entertained many 
illustrious guests, including clergymen, statesmen, sol- 
diers, heroes and high officials of the colonies. Moreover, 
she became the mother of a son who was afterwards to 
be known as the hero of Louisburg and to perpetuate 
the fame of the family under his well-earned title, Sir 
William Pepperell, the great American Baronet. The 
following tribute to Margery Pepperell appeared in the 
Boston Post Boy on the 30th of April, 1741 : " She was, 
through the whole course of her life, very exemplary for 
unaffected piety and amiable virtues, especially her 
charity, her courteous affability, her prudence, meekness, 
patience and her unweariedness in well-doing. She was 
not only a loving discreet wife and tender parent, but 
a sincere friend to all her acquaintance. " Here we have 
a picture of the true type of the old colonial dame. 

As we visit to-day the old Pepperell mansion, we 
see at once how the life and character of the Pepperell 
family impressed itself upon the material structure which 
the Pepperells converted into a home. We see here 
traces of the refined and cultured hospitality of the sue- 



In Kittery 7 

cessive mistresses of the mansion. We discern that 
generous largeness of atmosphere which made its wealthy 
master the benefactor of his country when with his own 
means he contributed very largely to the equipment 
of the armies sent against Port Royal, Louisburg and 
Quebec. We read also on its time-worn walls, as plainly 
as upon the family tomb, the pathetic story of the 
passing of the Pepperells leaving no one to bear their 
name down to future generations. 

But while the family name has become extinct, the 
Pepperell house still stands. It is a square, stately 
house with a gambrel-roof and large windows, still 
retaining their numerous old-fashioned panes of glass. 
The gable end of the house, with a handsome door, faces 
the highway but its large and hospitable front door opens 
upon a terraced garden which looks off to the ocean 
whence came the Pepperell ships bearing the Pepperell 
stores of wealth. This door opens into a fine hall which 
discloses an imposing stairway with hand-carved balusters 
and an elaborate, wonderfully fluted newel-post, crowned 
by an armorial design. In this large hall, court was 
held in the days when Pepperell was local magistrate ; 
and many social and state functions were celebrated 
here. 

Colonel William Pepperell died in 1733, and his son 
William became the heir of his immense estates and his 
large shipping and mercantile business. William the 
Second was a man, in every way, worthy of his father's 
name ; and by his genius he completed the difficult task 
of bringing the varied mercantile, social, military and 
political aspirations of his father to a supreme climax. 
The career of the second William Pepperell is familiar to 
all. The story of the siege and capture of Louisburg 
under his command is one of the most memorable events 



8 Old Colonial Houses 

in the history of the colonies. For Pepperell's services 
in this brilliant military expedition, a baronetcy was 
conferred upon him by the king of England ; and the 
son of the once poor and humble fisherman of the Isles 
of Shoals became Sir William Pepperell. After the 
death of his father he enlarged the already spacious 
apartments of the Kittery mansion and changed the 
fashion of the roof from the original high pointed shape 
to the new style of curb roofs just then coming into 
vogue. The grand dining-hall was refurnished in a 
sumptuous manner ; and here, doubtless, the elegant 
dinner service of solid silver presented to Sir William by 
the corporation of London, was frequently displayed 
upon the solid silver side-table which accompanied the 
gift. 

On his return from England, Sir William was given 
a magnificent reception in Boston ; and his home-coming 
was attended with much pomp and splendor. A gor- 
geously decorated barge, with liveried oarsmen, conveyed 
him from the vessel to the pier at the foot of the 
Pepperell gardens where, as a boy, Sir William had 
dangled his bare feet in the water and dreamed of grand 
things, but not half so wonderful as those the future had 
in store for him. 

Thereafter, Sir William lived in the old Pepperell 
mansion, with all the state and style of the titled English 
gentleman. In his humbler days, he had married Mary 
Hirst of Boston. She now, of course, bore the title of 
Lady Pepperell. Two children grew up in the old 
mansion, a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Nathaniel 
Sparhawk, and a son, Andrew, who was expected to 
hand the title and estate of Sir William down to posterity. 
But all the fond hopes and ambitions which centered in 
the life of this promising youth failed of realization, for 



t-3 
W 
w 

M 




In Kittery 9 

he died while yet a young man, and the name of 
Pepperell, which for two generations, had been a synonym 
for all that was successful and grand in colonial life, 
suddenly became extinct. 

The story of this eminently worthy, but ill-fated 
young man, is one of the most pathetic in early colonial 
history; and his love affairs with the beautiful Miss 
Hannah Waldo lend a touch of romance to the tale 
which renders it melodramatic, if not altogether tragic. 
This old-time love-affair, on account of the very high 
social position of both parties involved in it, and also on 
account of the very important interests to be perpetuated 
by the union of Miss Waldo with the heir of Sir William 
Pepperell, was regarded at the time almost as an affair of 
state ; and the breaking of the engagement upon the day 
appointed for the marriage caused the greatest sensation 
which the social world of the Maine colonists had ever 
known. For these reasons the Colonial Dames of to-day 
will read the story with sympathetic interest. 

The betrothal of Hannah Waldo to Andrew Pepperell 
took place in 1748, and was announced to the great 
pleasure and satisfaction of all concerned in this alliance 
and especially to General Waldo and to Sir William 
Pepperell who had been life-long friends. These two 
eminent men were born in the same year and had been 
companions-in-arms from their early youth. They served 
together in the siege of Louisburg; and afterwards had 
the honor of being presented at Court in England on the 
same day. Their high social position and their large 
landed estates in Maine gave them mutual interests, as 
they worked in close harmony for the development of 
the country. Their children frequently met and the 
attachment that grew up between Andrew Pepperell and 
Hannah Waldo was as natural as it was gratifying. 



io Old Colonial Houses 

Young Pepperell was a high-minded, honorable, well- 
educated young man of most brilliant prospects. Miss 
Waldo's beauty, and position, as the daughter of General 
Samuel Waldo, rendered her a most fitting fiancee. 
Their union was looked upon as the most brilliant match 
of the period. Unfortunately, however, young Pepperell 
was suddenly taken ill just after the betrothal was 
announced, and the marriage was necessarily postponed. 
Three years passed; then the wedding-day was again 
appointed, when, for some unexplained reason, the 
bridegroom wrote that circumstances necessitated another 
delay. The sequel was graphically told by Dr. Usher 
Parsons, fifty years ago. 

"Miss Waldo," writes Dr. Parsons, ''made prepa- 
rations in a style becoming the occasion, and of the 
distinguished guests that were to attend. A few days 
before that appointed for the wedding had arrived, her 
intended husband wrote that circumstances had rendered 
another delay necessary. This was too much for her to 
bear ; her mind from that moment was firmly fixed. 
She returned no answer ; the bridegroom, the guests 
from far and near, minister and all, assembled at the 
appointed hour and place, when she enjoyed the sweet 
revenge of telling Mr. Pepperell that she would not 
marry one who had occasioned her so much mortification, 
and who could not have that love and friendship for her 
that was necessary to her happiness." " 

The effect of this unexpected denouement can be 
easily imagined. It caused a profound sensation and a 
division of sentiment as to where the censure should be 
placed. Dr. Parsons writes that the probable solution of 
the "mysterious conduct of Andrew Pepperell" lies in 
his protracted illness after the betrothal was first 

1 Life of Sir William Pepperell, by Usher Parsons M. D. (1856.) 



In Kittery n 

announced and in the state of mental despondency into 
which he sank on account of some large financial losses. 
A few months later Andrew Pepperell died suddenly of 
fever ; and the pain and mortification which his father 
and family had suffered, from the unhappy termination 
of his engagement, was submerged in overwhelming 
grief at the death of the heir to the title and estates of 
the house of Pepperell. 

In the meantime, in less than six weeks after the 
broken betrothal, the social circles of the Province expe- 
rienced another sensation, when the beautiful and high- 
spirited daughter of Gen. Waldo married Thomas Flucker, 
royal Secretary of the Province. She resided in Boston 
until 1776 ; and when that city was evacuated she sailed 
with her loyalist husband for England where she died 
a few years later. 

The death of Andrew Pepperell was the first great 
blow to the aspirations of Sir William who had fondly 
hoped that his name and the baronetcy would be perpet- 
uated in his family by the direct male line ; but after the 
loss of his only son, Sir William centered his hopes and 
affections on his grandson, young William Sparhawk, to 
whom he bequeathed his title and estates on condition 
that Sparhawk should take the name of Pepperell. Sir 
William died in 1759, and from that time the fortunes of 
the family began to wane. At the outbreak of the 
Revolution young Sir William Sparhawk Pepperell 
remained loyal to king ; the Pepperell estates were 
confiscated and the most of the personal property was 
taken by the government officials to Boston or was 
scattered abroad never to be restored to the family. The 
young Sir William fled to England, the old mansion was 
sold, and strangers sat at its hearthstone. 



12 Old Colonial Houses 

After the death of Sir William Pepperell, in 1759, 
his widow, Lady Pepperell, removed to a new house 
built for her about 1765 by her son-in-law, Captain 
Sparhawk. This stately residence, now known as the 
"Lady Pepperell House" still stands in an excellent 
state of preservation. It represents a more modern 
style of architecture than the Pepperell mansion, being a 
spacious two-story house with hip-roof and four large 
chimneys. It has an imposing doorway set in a project- 
ing front which is supported by two tall fluted pilasters 
and crowned by an ornamented gable. Its fine hall and 
staircase are similar to those in the Pepperell mansion. 
The hall is now furnished with a large antique sofa, high- 
backed chairs, and mahogany side-table ; and a tall clock 
stands at the first landing of the stairway. A portrait 
of Lady Pepperell and some of her own furniture are 
still preserved in the Lady Pepperell house. Lady 
Pepperell died in 1789, having maintained for thirty 
years the dignity of her position, in solitary state, never 
forgetting what was due to her title even after the 
Revolution had swept away the unsubstantial rank and 
splendor of an American baronetcy. 



Following the road leading from the Pepperell 
Mansion toward the end of Kittery Point, we pass Fort 
McClary, and soon come to the ancient Sparhawk Manse. ■ 
This house was built in 1742, by William Pepperell, for 
his daughter Elizabeth on her marriage to Colonel 
Nathaniel Sparhawk. The bride, who left the old 
Pepperell mansion for this new home, was a young 
woman in every way fitted for the social position which 
she occupied. She had not only inherited the virtues 
and graces of her grandmother, the "sweet Margory 



In Kittery 13 

Bray," but she had been educated in the best schools in 
Boston and was skilled in all the accomplishments of her 
day. While in Boston she met Nathaniel Sparhawk, a 
young man of eminent worth and high social standing, 
to whom she soon became engaged. 

The marriage of this young couple took place in the 
old Pepperell mansion and was, doubtless, a brilliant 
affair, as befitted the exalted station of both parties. It 
is pleasant to remember that this was a June wedding, 
and a brief reference to the summer trousseau of this 
colonial bride will appeal to the maidens and matrons of 
to-day. 

"Send me," writes William Pepperell, in ordering 
his daughter's outfit from England, " by ye first oppor- 
tunity for this place or Boston, Silk to make a woman a 
full suit of clothes, the ground to be white paduroy and 
flowered with all sorts of coulers suitable for a young 
woman — another of white watered Taby, and Gold Lace 
for trimming it ; twelve yards of Green Paduroy ; thirteen 
yards of lace, for a woman's headdress, two inches wide, 
as can be bought for 13s per yard ; a handsome fan, with 
a leather mounting, as good as can be bought for about 
20 shillings ; two pair silk shoes, and cloggs a size bigger 
than ye shoe." * 

Thus we have a vision of the fair young bride, in 
her flowered gown and silk shoes, as she walked along 
the grassy lane leading from the Pepperell homestead to 
the splendid new mansion which was henceforth to be 
her home. This picture soon changes to that of the 
stately matron, the mother of four sons and one daughter 
who filled the great house with life and happiness. 

It was not until the outbreak of the Revolution that 
fate laid its heavy hand on this household. In 1775, the 

1 Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Series II, Vol. XI., p. 228. 



14 Old Colonial Houses 

young baronet, Sir William Sparhawk Pepperell fled to 
England. In 1776, Colonel Nathaniel Sparhawk died. 
Elizabeth lived in her widowhood for twenty-one years 
and was then laid to rest, with her husband, in the 
Pepperell tomb at Kittery. 

A grass-grown path still leads to the Sparhawk man- 
sion which stands apart from the neighboring houses, at 
some distance from the highway, in aristocratic seclusion. 
The approach to the house reveals a well-preserved build- 
ing with the old-fashioned gambrel-roof and dormer- 
windows, but it has also a cupola upon the roof which 
gives a somewhat modern aspect to the house. Two 
magnificent linden-trees, set out in 1742, still keep ward 
and watch at the front of this old-time mansion, and a tall 
Lombardy poplar adds a touch of old-world picturesque- 
ness to the view. The interior of the house presents one 
of the finest and most perfect types of pure colonial 
architecture and finish now existing in New England ; and, 
happily, it remains just as it was when young Sir William 
Sparhawk Pepperell fled from the country at the outbreak 
of the Revolution. The paper on the walls of the hall 
and living-room was brought from London and show a 
wonderful design in English landscape. The paneled 
woodwork and wainscotting are remarkable in their style 
and finish, and the great fireplaces, with tile-borders 
representing scenes from Greek Mythology, still suggest 
the unbounded hospitality of colonial days. The balus- 
trade in the hall of this house is of the same pattern as 
that in the two Pepperell houses, thus showing a 
unanimity of taste in the builders of these family homes. 

In its palmy days, the Sparhawk Manse contained 
a fine picture gallery which included among its treasures 
many rare portraits and historical paintings. In refer- 
ence to these pictures, Usher Parsons, the biographer of 



In Kittery 15 

Pepperell, writes : " The large hall of this mansion was 
lined with some fifty portraits of the Pepperell and 
Sparhawk families, and of the friends and companions- 
in-arms of Sir William;" and in a manuscript written, in 
1846, by an old lady of York, are these lines describing 
the Sparhawk hall : 

" Where rows of pictures, set in goodly frames, 
Of squires and belted knights and stately dames, 
Hung on the walls, now desolate and bare, 
Or patched with paper fluttering in the air." 

In addition to all these attractions, the Sparhawk 
Manse has its haunted chamber ; but what poor ghost 
is here compelled to " dree his weird, " we do not know. 
Is it, perchance, the once gay and handsome young Tory 
baronet returned to do penance in his ancestral halls 
because he loved the colonies less than he loved his 
king ? 

However this may be, it matters not. "All houses, 
wherein men have lived and died, are haunted houses;" 
and, in these old homes of Kittery, the Brays, the 
Pepperells and the Sparhawks are still very real and 
insistent beings, although their bodies have long since 
crumbled into dust. 



Kittery Point has other houses well worthy of 
mention on account of their venerable age and many 
antique treasures. Among these is the William T. 
Gerrish house. The Gerrishes were connected with 
some of the best of the old families of Kittery, and 
have inherited a most valuable and interesting collection 
of family relics. The house is a sharp-roofed two-story 
edifice of the conventional design of its period, but its 



1 6 Old Colonial Houses 

severity of style is relieved by a porch in front and a low 
ell overspread by two tall trees which greatly add to 
the picturesqueness of the place. 

In 1743, Benjamin Gerrish, son of Timothy, built a 
large two-story house, with a lean-to, which is still 
occupied by his descendants ; and, in 1750, his brother, 
John Gerrish, built the large square house on the west 
end of Gerrish Island which is now used as a summer 
residence. 

Another house which should not be overlooked on 
Kittery Point is that of John Deering, which was built 
in 1700, for his grandmother, Joan Bray Deering, a 
sister of Margery Bray Pepperell. 

Kittery Point also has the distinction of having a 
very ancient church and parsonage. The church was 
built in 1730. The Pepperells were among its most 
influential founders ; and it is often called the Pepperell 
church. The building was remodeled in 1874 and now 
presents quite a modern aspect, although it still retains 
its ancient belfry and its tall narrow windows set with 
innumerable small panes of glass. 

The Kittery parsonage was built in 1729. This is a 
plain two-story house of no architectural pretensions, 
and begins to look time-worn and weary with the stress 
of passing generations. 

Standing side by side in the midst of the historic 
mansions of the past, this old church and parsonage 
remain as momuments of the spiritual and religious 
experience which was a prominent element in the life of 
the people of Kittery Point at the time of its greatest 
social and material prosperity. 



ALONG CROOKED LANE AND 
THE NEWICHAWANNOCK 



" The huge elms that stood along the river 
shore were full of shadows, while above, the 
large house was growing bright with candle- 
light, and taking on a cheerful air of invi- 
tation." v 

— Sarah Orne Jewett. 



II 

ALONG CROOKED LANE AND THE 
NEWICHAWANNOCK 

^V^EAVING Kittery Point, and passing up the 
J II t beautiful stretch of water known as Crooked 
fJ^O, Lane, we find the oldest garrison house in 
Kittery. This ancient landmark was built by 
Robert Cutts, Senior, who settled here about 1652. It 
is now proudly pointed out as the birthplace of a signer 
of the Declaration of Independence. The patriot and 
soldier who thus added to the fame of the old Cutts 
garrison house was General William Whipple, son of 
William and Mary Whipple. The Whipples were of 
good old English stock, descended from the Ipswich 
Whipples whose ancestral home is still standing, and is 
considered the finest and best-preserved house of its 
period now existing in Massachusetts. William Whipple 
of Kittery married Mary Cutts who inherited the garrison 
house from her Cutts ancestors. Their son, Gen. 
William Whipple, born in this humble home, married 
the daughter of Mr. Moffatt of Portsmouth and afterward 
resided in the elegant Moffatt mansion which was one of 
the most beautiful colonial homes of New Hampshire. 

Two daughters were also born to William and Mary 
Whipple in the old Cutts garrison house and are no less 
worthy of mention than their more famous brother. 
The oldest was Hannah Whipple who married Dr. 
Joshua Brackett of Portsmouth. A tombstone in the 
old Kittery burying-ground bears the following epitaph, 



20 Old Colonial Houses 

in memory of Hannah Whipple Brackett, which impresses 
us as of unusual interest. 

"In memory of Mrs. Hannah Brackett, widow of 
Doctor Joshua Brackett, who died April 24th, 1825, in 
the 71st year of her age. 

A pious, cheerful, rational Christian ; possessing 
an active, intelligent mind, much of her time was 
employed in literary pursuits ; and her acquirements 
were manifested with that female diffidence which made 
her conversation pleasing to men of science." 

This is one of the very few references to literary 
women which I have found in my studies of old 
colonial homes ; and it plainly teaches that although the 
women of that day might be gifted with literary talent, 
they were not expected to be overbold in the expression 
of their views. 

The second daughter of William and Mary Whipple 
was quite as remarkable as her sister in her intellectual 
endowments. She was the ancestress of James Russell 
Lowell, to whom she may have bequeathed her unusual 
mental qualities. The old Cutts garrison house, which 
was the home of the Whipples, is still standing in 
Kittery. It retains its projecting upper story ; and its 
well-preserved interior is furnished with the ancestral 
treasures of the family. 



Following the course of the early settlers up the 
Piscataqua, we come to the Dennett homestead which 
was built about the year 1720. 1 This is an ideal New 
England farmhouse, spacious, quaint, and charming ; and 
is approached by an avenue of lofty trees. It was the 
home of the Hon. Mark Dennett who had the somewhat 

'"Old Kittery and Her Families," by Rev. E. E. Stackpole, p. 90. 



In Eliot 21 

unique experience of having been a representative to 
General Court before the separation of Maine from 
Massachusetts, and, after that, a representative to our 
state legislature for many years. He was a school- 
teacher by profession ; and at his death, at the age of 
ninety-seven, it was said that three generations of people 
then living in Kittery had been his pupils. The Dennetts 
are of Norman origin ; and proudly claim descent from 
Hugh D'Anet who is said to have come into England 
with William the Conqueror. 1 



The first settler within the limits of the present 
town of Eliot was Nicholas Frost. He came of good 
old Devonshire stock, and with his wife and two sons 
emigrated to this country about 1634. He and his 
descendants were men of forceful character and have 
held honorable and influential positions in the community. 

The name of this family calls up many interesting 
local and historical associations. Major Charles Frost 
was one of the most notable men of his day in the 
Province. He was Justice of the Peace, Representative 
to General Court, member of the Governor's Council, 
and Commander-in-chief of the Militia of Maine. He 
was killed by the Indians, at Ambush Rock, while 
returning from church at the Parish of Unity, on the 
4th of July, 1697. The descendants of Major Charles 
Frost were allied by marriage to the best families in 
Kittery. Two of the sons and one of the grandsons of 
Major Charles married into the Pepperell family. A 
daughter, Mary, married Captain John Hill who com- 
manded Fort Mary, at Winter Harbor, which fortress 
he named in honor of his bride. 

1 " Old Kittery and Her Families," p. 352. 



22 Old Colonial Houses 

The old colonial homes of the Frost family, in Eliot, 
are now represented by the house built in 1749 by Eliot 
Frost, son of Charles and Jane Frost ; and by the large 
two-story house built ten years earlier, by Colonel John 
Frost, an older brother of Eliot Frost. In addition to 
these, there is the small log garrison house, built by the 
Frosts about 1733, which now serves the very useful 
purpose of a woodshed on the estate of Mr. Frederick 
Frost. 

Although the ancient Frost garrison house was 
destroyed in 1760, and the building which was erected 
to take its place has also passed away, we may form 
some opinion of the daily life in the Frost family and of 
their position in the community simply by reading the 
inventory of their household possessions in the wills of 
Major Frost and of his son Charles Frost. These wills 
enumerate many articles of value and of uncommon 
interest. For example, Major Charles Frost bequeathed 
to his son Charles Frost, Junior, the homestead and five 
hundred acres of land ; and also a negro man named 
Tony. He gave to his second son, John Frost, a 
dwelling and land at Strawberry Bank, Portsmouth, 
N. H.; also a piece of gold called a "guinia," and a negro 
boy named "Esq." He gave to his son Nicholas other 
lands lying and being in the town of Kittery. His will 
states: "Also do I give to my son Nicholas all my 
money of old England coin and a piece of gold called a 
Jacobus, 1 together with my negro boy Prince." 2 

The will of Charles Frost, Junior, which was pro- 
bated in 1724, mentions silver porringers, silver spoons, 
a silver tobacco box, a silver seal, a watch, a seal ring 
and gold rings, pistols and holsters, a silver-hilted 

1 A " Jacobus " was a gold coin first issued in 1615, in the reign of James I. One 
of the coins of this issue is now in the collection of the British Museum- 
2 See Maine Wills. 



In Eliot 23 

"scimiter," two riding horses, his "books of all sorts," 
beside gold and silver coins, to say nothing of the 
furniture and cattle and the three negro slaves, named 
Prince, Pompey and Caesar. Item 12, in this will reads: 
" I give to the church in Berwick, my small silver 
tankerd." This "tankerd" is still treasured, with other 
pieces of communion silver in the church at South 
Berwick. 

In the will of Jane Frost, widow and gentlewoman, 
are the following minor bequests : 

Item: I give and bequeath to my well-beloved 
daughter, Sarah Frost, my mourning suit of clothes. 

Item : I give and bequeath to my well-beloved 
daughter, Margery Wentworth, my black suit of clothes 
and my gold necklace. 

Item : I give and bequeath to my daughter-in-law, 
Miriam Frost, my cloth riding-hood. 

Item : I give and bequeath to my well-beloved 
daughter, Margery Wentworth, my large silver salver 
and fine silver spoons. 

Item : I give and bequeath to my well-beloved 
granddaughters, Jane Frost and Jane Wentworth, all 
the rest of my wearing apparel of every sort to be 
equally divided betwixt them. 1 

I have found nothing, in my study of the old colonial 
homes which has so appealed to my personal sympathy 
as these old wills ; and especially pathetic are these 
bequests of "Jane Frost Gentlewoman," in which she 
divides her personal treasures and cherished pieces of 
wearing apparel between her two well-beloved daughters, 
and the two granddaughters each of whom bore her 
name. This will, and that of the husband of Jane Frost, 

1 Maine Wills. 



24 Old Colonial Houses 

suggest very distinctly the touch of luxury which 
alleviated the discomforts and hardships in the home life 
of the better classes during the early colonial period. 

The honor of being the oldest house in Eliot has 
been claimed for the Toby house, a little, long, one- 
story building erected by John Toby in 1727. But there 
is another time-worn, weather-beaten little house of 
almost equal antiquity, which is located in the upper 
part of Eliot and known as the home of Noah Emery. 
This little old house was originally the ell of a much 
larger dwelling, and is of especial interest because it 
served as the office of the first lawyer residing in Maine. 
Noah Emery was admitted to the bar in 1725, and served 
as King's Attorney for the Province. He had a library 
consisting of "books of law, physic, divinity and history," 
a valuable collection for those days, which he bequeathed 
to his sons. 

The two Bartlett houses in Eliot are also noteworthy. 
One of these was built by Nathan Bartlett in 1740, and 
has been occupied by six generations of the Bartlett 
family. The other was built by John Heard Bartlett 
in 1750. 

The residence now owned and occupied by Dr. J. L. 
M. Willis of Eliot is a handsome two-story house with bay 
windows and inviting porticos, shaded by two magnificent 
elm-trees. This house was originally a low-roofed 
cottage built by a Mr. Dixon, and purchased, about 
1775, by the great-grandfather of Dr. Willis. An old 
chimney of the house bears the date of 1727. Another 
very old house, reputed to have been built in 1 700, and 
still having its original shutters stands just north of the 
residence of Dr. Willis.* 

' Old Kittery and Her Families, p. 232. 



In South Berwick 25 

The town of Eliot also possessed, in the well- 
remembered Shapleigh homestead, a fine example of 
early colonial architecture, with picturesque gambrel- 
roof and one huge center chimney. This chimney was 
shaken down on the fateful first of November, 1755, 
which will long be known as 

— " the terrible earthquake day " 

When "the deacon finished the one-hoss shay." 

Unfortunately this typical old home, after surviving the 
storms and earthquakes of two centuries, was torn down 
in 1899, and must be added to our much-regretted list of 
late, lamented houses. 



Next to Eliot lie the beautiful shores of South 
Berwick, a town famous for its fine old houses, around 
which cluster many historic and social traditions. Let 
us pause first in that most picturesque spot which, in 
olden times was called "Pipe Stave Landing." Here, 
in 1639, Richard Nason possessed a grant of two hundred 
acres of land, and, here, he and his descendants lived for 
a century or more. The old Nason homestead, whose 
kindly and dauntless owner was fined for harboring and 
entertaining Quakers within its hospitable walls, has 
long since crumbled into dust ; and on its site now 
stands the handsome colonial mansion built by Colonel 
Jonathan Hamilton. This house is very spacious, and 
its interior is elaborately finished in the old colonial 
style. Colonel Hamilton was a wealthy lumber merchant 
and spared no expense in making his home one of the 
most beautiful dwelling-houses of its time. This old 
mansion is described by Miss Jewett, in the opening 
chapter of the "Tory Lover," as "the chief show and 
glory of a rich provincial neighborhood." 



26 Old Colonial Houses 

Two other remarkably fine mansions in South 
Berwick are the Judge Hayes house, which is located on 
a terraced hillside commanding a most picturesque view 
of the river valley and distant mountains, and the 
famous Cushing mansion built by Madame Wallingford 
for her daughter Mrs. Cushing. All of these houses are 
most suggestive of the historic days and the elegant 
social life in the last quarter of the eighteenth century ; 
but they were not erected until after the close of the 
Revolution. We therefore reluctantly let the ghosts of 
Paul Jones, John Hancock, General Lafayette and other 
distinguished personages, who have been guests in these 
historic homes, slip silently away without even asking 
for their story. 

Happily we still have in South Berwick one fine 
example of the earlier colonial houses with which to 
grace our pages. This is the Jewett mansion ; and it is 
a most perfect type of the old colonial dwelling. For 
spacious elegance, richness of finish, harmony of design 
and that indefinite something, which we call atmosphere, 
it is without a rival in our state. It is a two-story house, 
with colonial portico, hip-roof and dormer-windows. 
From its hospitable front doorway one steps into a large, 
finely proportioned hall which presents that distinctive 
effect for which our modern architects have so often 
striven but seldom succeeded in producing ; and from 
the rear of the hall a large, handsomely carved and 
paneled door, ornamented with a quaint, brass knocker, 
opens into a delightful, old-fashioned garden. A broad 
archway, supported by two finely proportioned pillars, 
frames the stairway, making a perfect architectural 
picture as viewed from either doorway on the lower floor. 

The stairway rises by easy ascent to a broad landing, 
lighted by an oval-topped window of beautiful and unique 



In South Berwick 27 

design ; and thence turns to the left to reach the floor 
above. The balustrade is of solid red wood with elabo- 
rately wrought newel-posts, rods and railing. The 
paneling and woodwork in the hall is hand-carved and of 
an elaborate pattern ; and the fluted cornice is very deep 
and of a most artistic design. A tall mahogany clock 
stands in a corner of the landing; and Chippendale 
chairs, antique side -tables and two long, narrow settles, 
with curiously carved mahogany frames, give a genuinely 
colonial aspect to this fine hall. 

The paneling, mantles, and other woodwork in 
parlor and library are also of rich and most elaborate 
workmanship ; and the fluted cornices around the ceilings 
are a foot in depth. All of this interior finish was 
originally of solid dark red wood ; but unfortunately was 
painted white by one of the earlier owners of the house. 
The walls of the parlor are still papered with the original 
hangings in the shades of dark red and pale rose color, 
and form a fitting background for the antique mahogany 
furniture which adorns the room. The library, the state 
dining-room, and the smaller but very attractive breakfast- 
room are all furnished with the rare old heirlooms of the 
family, with which, by faultless taste, the modern 
additions of books, pictures and bric-a-brac, have been 
made to harmonize. The chambers are furnished with 
high-posted, canopied bedsteads, antique mirrors, silver 
candelabra and inlaid dressing-tables which make us 
feel as though we were living in a perpetual story-book. 

Among the art treasures of the house is the portrait 
of Maine's gifted authoress, Miss Sarah Orne Jewett, 
painted by her artist friend, Mrs. Sarah Whitman. The 
delicate, yet strong and spiritual face of Miss Jewett 
thus looks down and graciously greets the guest from 
the corner of the library ; and we gain, in this alluring 



28 Old Colonial Houses 

room, a better understanding of how Miss Jewett has 
been able to give to her books that fine flavor, that 
characteristic atmosphere and exquisite expression of 
true New England life which is lacking in the work of 
so many of our modern writers. 

The Jewett mansion was built in 1774 by John 
Haggens, a wealthy merchant who lavished his ample 
means on this ideal home. The house was purchased 
sometime prior to 1830 by Captain Theodore F. Jewett, 
and has been in the possession of the Jewett family for 
three generations. Here the eminent physician, Doctor 
Theodore H. Jewett lived during his long and useful life, 
beloved and revered by all who knew him ; and here his 
daughters, Miss Sarah Orne Jewett and Miss Mary R. 
Jewett still dispense the old-time hospitality and preserve 
the ancient traditions of the house. Unlike most of our 
old colonial mansions, the Jewett homestead has not 
seen the glory depart from its gates ; and we leave the 
doors of this ideal home feeling glad that Maine can 
claim the birthplace of one who, in her writings, has 
given to the world the noblest types of New England 
womanhood. 



Other old pre-Revolutionary houses of the plainer 
sort in Berwick are the Yeaton House, the Stackpole 
house (formerly the Butler house), the Hersom house, 
built by Edward Haggens, the house of Judge Hill now 
owned by Mrs. Parsons, and a second Hill house owned 
by E. S. Goodwin. Another old house which is the 
property of W. A. H. Goodwin represents a similar style 
of building. 

These old homesteads, as they stand on their ancestral 
acres, along the shores and on the hillsides of old Eliot 




Upper Haee in the Jewett Mansion 



In South Berwick 29 

and South Berwick, still preserve an air of quiet and 
unobtrusive superiority which is born of good and 
ancient lineage ; and seem apparently quite indifferent 
to the more pretentious but ephemeral claims of the 
modern summer cottages that have recently appeared 
upon the coast. 




Colonial Mantelpiece in the Jewett Mansion 



OLD HOUSES IN YORK AND 

KENNEBUNK 



"Built in the old Colonial day, 
When men lived in a grander way, 
With ampler hospitality." 

— Longfellow. 



Ill 

OLD HOUSES IN YORK AND KENNEBUNK 

^fc% ETURNING to the coast, we come to the old 
^■1% historic town of York, called at the time of the 
Z^L visit of Captain John Smith, in 1614, by its 
ancient Indian name Agamenticus. In 1640, 
Agamenticus was chartered as a city, the first city 
in America, but twelve years later the charter was 
revoked and the place was given the name of York. 
As the county seat, the town of York very early in its 
history acquired local importance and is now rich in 
civic, ecclesiastical, military and social traditions. Here 
stand the ancient jail built in 1653 ; the old meeting- 
house whose corner-stone was laid in 1747 ; the Mclntyre 
Garrison of historic fame ; several fine large houses that 
were once used as taverns, and many spacious mansion- 
houses of the colonial gentry. 

The old jail, built in 1653, is unique in being the 
only building of its class remaining from the early 
colonial period. Its solid wall, heavy doors, high 
windows, huge locks, bolts, and iron gratings recall the 
days when this building was a terror to evil-doers. One 
has only to glance at the York Records to learn the 
misdeeds for which the inhabitants of the county were 
here incarcerated, and often after a preliminary punish- 
ment in the stocks, or by lashings upon the back. 
Happily now these unpleasant associations are growing 
dim, especially since the old jail has been converted into 



34 Old Colonial Houses 

an historical museum by the public-spirited women of 
the town. It now contains a fine collection of antiquities 
and historical relics which are of interest to every chance 
visitor, or summer guest, in this charming old seaport. 



The ecclesiastical records of the town of York 
during the eighteenth century are, without doubt, the 
most interesting of any in our state. One of the earliest 
colonial parsons established here was Shubael Dummer 
who was killed by the Indians in the terrible massacre of 
1692. Dummer was succeeded by Samuel Moody, a 
Harvard graduate, and a man of great piety and learning, 
who came to this outpost of the wilderness in the true 
missionary spirit. He served the church faithfully from 
1700 to 1747, albeit with many eccentricities of character 
and a truly dominant sway. 

This, however, was the age when denunciatory 
sermons, with scathing personalities, were frequently 
indulged in by the pulpit, and both saint and sinner 
trembled beneath the law. During the pastorate of 
Father Moody, many of his church members received 
public warnings and reproofs ; but it is evident that they 
sometimes rebelled, for Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 
great-grandson of Father Moody, tells us that "when 
offended parishioners wounded by his pointed preaching 
would rise to go out of church," the parson would cry 
out : "Come back, you graceless sinner, come back ! " 

Some of the sermons, to which Father Moody's 
flock were thus somewhat peremptorily invited to listen, 
are still in print under the following titles : " The Vain 
Youth Summoned to Appear Before Christ's Bar;" 
"The Doleful State of the Damned; " and "The Traitor 



In York 35 

Judas Hung Up in Chains." l And yet we are con- 
strained to believe that Father Moody was a gentle, 
kindly, lovable man whose long pastorate was marked by 
heroic self-sacrifice and devoted service to the welfare of 
his people. This eccentric old colonial parson was the 
father of a still more eccentric son known as " Handker- 
chief Moody." Father Samuel Moody died in 1747, and 
the parish voted to raise sixty-five pounds to enable his 
family to go into proper mourning. 

Such was the religious spirit of pastor and people in 
the community when the old meeting-house, now standing 
in York, was erected in 1747. This ancient house of 
worship is located on one of the principal streets of the 
town, and is an excellent model of the New England 
church in the second period of its development, after 
porches and steeples had been added to the original 
barn-like structures. Its interior was also typical of the 
period when it was erected. Its square box-pews, its 
massive pulpit under the high sounding-board, its low 
galleries and long windows have often been described ; 
and we cannot help thinking how incongruous with all 
this barrenness and severity must have seemed the 
gorgeous costumes of the embroidered, brocaded, be- 
wigged and be-ruffled old saints who strode majestically 
down these bare aisles and sat heroically in the uncom- 
fortable, high-backed pews. 

But this old house of worship, notwithstanding its 
severe and forbidding aspect, is so hallowed with 
memories, and so rich in its priceless parish records, to 
which so many of the old families of Maine owe a debt 
of gratitude, that one gazes upon the building, not with 
idle curiosity, but with a reverent interest. Modern 
customs have mitigated its discomforts and time has 

1 Williamson's Bibliography of Maine, Vol. II, p. 136. 



36 Old Colonial Houses 

mellowed its walls — and also the doctrines advanced 
from its ancient pulpit — but an atmosphere of the early 
Sabbath-day sanctity still remains which, with its inherited 
and acquired traditions, makes it the typical old colonial 
meeting-house of Maine. 



The Mclntyre Garrison House, built in 1640, is the 
oldest block house now in existence in the State of 
Maine. It was built by Micum Mclntyre, a loyal and 
dauntless Scotch soldier of the old country, who had been 
captured by Cromwell's army and, with other Scotch 
royalists, exiled to the new world. The energy, enter- 
prise, and especially the fighting qualities of "Micum" 
immediately found scope in the new country. It must 
have been no small task, considering the facilities of the 
period, to construct this heavy fortification with its 
rough-hewn timbers, dove-tailed together, and its massive, 
projecting second story loopholed for firing upon the 
enemy. The equipments and the commander of this old 
fort, taken together, were so formidable that the very 
name of Mclntyre struck terror into the savage breast 
of the Indian ; and on that terrible night of February 
5th, 1692, when the town of York was burned by the 
French and Indians, every dwelling-house was destroyed ; 
but the Mclntyre garrison remained secure. It still 
stands as a monument to the valor of its builder and of 
the dramatic scenes enacted in the early history of this 
ancient town. 

The old Judkins garrison house, built about the same 
time as the Mclntyre garrison, is now a dilapidated 
forsaken building but still lifts its one huge chimney in 
token of the life and light once existing, but long since 
extinct, upon its hearthstone. 



In York 37 

In the early colonial days every town was required 
by law to maintain an ordinary, or tavern for the enter- 
tainment of travelers and the best and most commodious 
dwelling in the place was often used as a public house. 
Rules were prescribed by the General Court, as to the 
food and drinks to be provided for the guests ; and also 
the prices for the same. During the seventeenth century, 
dancing, card playing and all disorderly conduct were 
prohibited ; and the landlord himself was chosen from 
among the most staid and respectable men of the town. 
As the years passed on, more laxity was allowed in the 
general regulations ; but the taverns still retained all the 
dignity of the most hospitable of private houses. 

At the door of the ancient ordinary, swung the 
creaking sign-board with its time-honored legend announc- 
ing entertainment for man and beast ; and, within, was 
the alluring tap-room, with its huge fire-place where the 
great logs were kept brightly burning, and its tempting 
bar where hot flip and other stronger drinks were served 
at short notice to the ever thirsty guest. The tavern 
tap-room was the Mecca of the traveler and of the village 
loafer alike. It was the paradise of the joker and the 
story-teller ; it was the club-room where home and foreign 
politics were discussed and public sentiment moulded ; 
it served in the place of the daily paper for the circula- 
tion of news from abroad, and rivaled the modern 
clipping bureau in the dissemination of local biographical 
and critical notices. The most brilliant social functions 
of the town were also frequently held at the tavern where, 
in the later colonial times, a banqueting room and danc- 
ing hall were always at the service of the guests. 

Such an hostelry was the old Wilcox tavern at York, 
which still preserves an air of consequence and mellow 
hospitality. This old tavern was one of the most preten- 



38 Old Colonial Houses 

tious houses of its class, — a large two-story edifice, with 
high hip-roof, spacious rooms, and wide halls with two 
large doors ever ready to open in welcome to the guest. 
It still stands surrounded by magnificent elms, a type of 
the old-time colonial tavern. 

The old Wilcox tavern like other famous contem- 
porary hostelries has sheltered many distinguished guests 
under its time-worn roof ; and some very entertaining 
traditions have been preserved in regard to those exciting 
days just prior to the Revolution when Whig and Tory 
met within its doors. 



As York was the county seat to which the judges 
and barristers from New Hampshire and Massachusetts 
often came, the court sessions were attended with much 
official pomp and ceremony. This doubtless contributed 
an aristocratic quality to the tone of society in this 
ancient town, and aided in elevating the social plane of 
its entire people. A brief record of the customs of this 
period has been left to us by John Adams who, as a 
young barrister, came to York in 1774, and who made at 
that time the following entry in his journal : 

" When I got to^the tavern on the eastern side of 
the Piscataquis river, I found the sheriff of York and six 
of his deputies, all with gold-laced hats, ruffles, swords 
and very gay clothes, and all likely young men who had 
come out to that place to escort the court into town. " 

This gives us a hint of the pomp and splendor 
affected by the court officials in those olden days "when 
the judges wore robes of scarlet, with large cambric 
bands, and immense wigs, while the barristers had gowns, 
and also bands and tie-wigs. As the judges approached 
the shire towns, the sheriff met them with an escort and 



In York 39 

flourish of trumpets. Their arrival was announced by 
cannon ; and the daily summons to the court, before 
bells were introduced, was by beating a drum." r 

The first court held in York in 1653 was presided 
over by Chief Justice Right Worshipful Richard 
Bellingham; and from that time to the days of Judge 
Sewall, the builder of Coventry Hall, the pomp and 
ceremony of the court penetrated into the private resi- 
dences and gave to the homes of York a characteristic 
dignity. 



Of the early homes of the old families of York, much 
of interest might be written. Among the most note- 
worthy of these spacious and elegant old mansions, are 
the Sayward house, the Pell house, and the Barrell house, 
all of which are rich in colonial traditions. The handsome 
Sewall mansion, named Coventry Hall, from Coventry, 
England, the original home of the Sewall family, is a rare 
example of the more elaborate type which appeared just 
after the Revolution. The front of the house is orna- 
mented by two fine columns with elaborately carved 
capitals ; and its pillared doorway surmounted by a glass 
fanlight of extraordinarily beautiful design, is ever a 
delight to the guest, or the passer-by. 

The oldest house in York is undoubtedly the little 
Bradbury cottage which occupies a picturesque location 
on the banks of the York river. 

The Sayward mansion is also of very ancient date and 
is especially rich in historic traditions. This house was 
built by Jonathan Sayward, who was one of the most 
wealthy men of his time in Maine. He was a successful 
merchant and prominent in public affairs, having been 

1 Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Series II., Vol. I., p. 305. 



40 Old Colonial Houses 

Representative to the General Court for seventeen years ; 
also Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and Judge of 
Probate for York County. At the outbreak of the 
Revolutionary troubles, he was a staunch and conscien- 
tious loyalist; and while treated with respect by his 
fellow townspeople, he was virtually a prisoner in his 
own house for many months during the trying year of 

1775- 

The Sayward house contains a full length portrait 
of Jonathan Sayward, and also portraits of his wife and 
daughter painted by Blackburn, between 1750 and 1765. 
In addition to these rare old colonial portraits, the 
descendants of the Saywards also possess many antique 
treasures some of which were brought from Louisburg 
by Judge Sayward in his own vessel, in 1746. 1 

But this famous old house is also of interest from 
the fact that it was the birthplace of Maine's first woman 
novelist, Madam Sally Barrell Keating Wood. This 
remarkable authoress was the daughter of Nathaniel 
Barrell and Sally Sayward, and granddaughter of Judge 
Jonathan Sayward. She lived until her marriage in the 
ancestral Sayward mansion, and during her childhood she 
must have heard many romantic and exciting tales of the 
early settlers which doubtless stimulated her vivid 
imagination and inspired her love for story-telling. One 
of the most remarkable of these tales was the tradition of 
the "Sixteen Silver Porringers." This is a story as true 
as it is romantic ; and is worthy of remembrance as a 
type of many similar tales which were the actual experi- 
ences of not a few of the early colonists who were 
captured and taken to Canada by the Indians. But not 
many of these prisoners were so fortunate as the Lady 
of the " Sixteen Silver Porringers." This old colonial 

1 Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Series II., Vol. I., p. 403. 



In York 41 

heroine was the aunt of Jonathan Say ward. It was when 
she was a little girl that the Indians made the fateful 
attack on York and killed so many of the inhabitants. 

Little Hannah Sayward was among the eighty-four 
prisoners that were captured at this time. She was 
taken to Quebec, where her captors were induced, by a 
large reward, to give her into the keeping of a wealthy 
French lady. Little Hannah was educated in a convent ; 
and when she grew up she became a nun. Her bene- 
factress, on her death, left a large property, one half of 
which was given to Hannah and the other half to the 
nunnery of which the little New England-born girl, in 
time, became the Lady Abbess. Then it chanced, one 
day, that a stranger visited the nunnery, and told the 
sweet-faced Lady Abbess that he came from the town 
of York in Maine. The surprise of the guest can be 
imagined when the Abbess said, " I too came from York 
in Maine ; my name was Hannah Sayward." 

When the stranger, who was Mr. Manuel Beal of 
York, left Quebec, the Lady Abbess sent by him sixteen 
small silver porringers, one for each of her sixteen nieces 
and nephews. One of these porringers came to Jonathan 
Sayward who, in course of time, purchased from his 
cousins all the rest of them and had them melted and 
made over into six large porringers. One of these large 
porringers is still owned by a descendant in York. What 
became of the five, tradition saith not. 

Listening to such stories as this, it is no wonder 
that Sally Sayward treasured up material for future use 
as an author. Her own life, too, was eventful. At the 
age of eighteen she was united in marriage to Richard 
Keating of York. The wealthy grandfather built a fine 
house for the young couple near his own where they 
lived happily until the sudden death of Mr. Keating in 



42 Old Colonial Houses 

1783. Then to divert her mind from her own sorrow, 
Mrs. Keating essayed the pleasurable task of authorship. 
In 1804, she married General Abiel Wood of Wiscasset, 
and subsequently gave to the old Wood mansion of that 
town the distinction of being the home of the most 
noted literary lady of the time in Maine. Later in life 
"Madam" Wood resided in Portland; and subsequently 
at Kennebunk where she died at the age of ninety-five. 

Williamson gives a list of seven novels written by 
Mrs. Wood who calls herself, upon her title pages, 
"A Lady of Maine." She also wrote many biographical 
and historical articles. It is said, however, that when 
the Waverley Novels appeared she was so dissatisfied 
with her own works that she gathered what she could of 
them and destroyed them. The historian and biographer 
of to-day can give up the works of fiction written by the 
"Lady of Maine," with comparative resignation; but 
the loss of Madam Wood's personal reminiscences and 
sketches of early colonial life is irreparable. 



The villages of Kennebunk and Kennebunkport are 
recognized rivals of Old York in the natural beauty of 
their location and in their fine old homes hallowed by 
historic associations. 

The oldest building in Kennebunk is the garrison 
house which was built as a defense against the Indians 
in 1730. This ancient historic landmark is still preserved 
on the estate recently purchased, for a summer home, 
by Mr. William A. Rogers of Buffalo ; and here the 
quaint and time-worn garrison house will stand, amidst 
the beautiful gardens, cultivated lawns, and all the 
improvements of modern life, in mute, but eloquent, 
expression of the changes wrought by time. 



In Kennebunk 43 

One of the most notable of the old dwelling-houses 
in Kennebunk is the Waldo Emerson mansion which 
stands on the road to Kennebunkport and which was 
built, according to local tradition in the year 1760. It is 
a large, handsome two-story house with gambrel-roof and 
two huge chimneys ; and in its exterior is fully comparable 
to the Pepperell mansion at Kittery Point. 

Waldo Emerson, one of the ablest and most influ- 
ential of the early settlers of Kennebunk, was an 
enterprising and successful business man. His wife was 
esteemed as "a valuable woman, distinguished for all 
those virtues which make up the Christian character." 
The home which this worthy couple founded was an ideal 
one, in its time ; but they did not live long to enjoy its 
comforts and dispense its hospitalities. Mr. Waldo 
Emerson died at the age of thirty-eight, and his wife 
at thirty-two. Their only daughter, Sarah, married 
Theodore Lyman who, with his wife's inheritance and 
the money which he acquired in the West India trade, 
rebuilt the Waldo house in a manner of "surpassing 
magnificence." In the year 1785, a distinguished visitor 
wrote of this new mansion : " It is fit for a nobleman. 
I have seen nothing like it in this country, and scarcely 
anywhere." 

This old house, which was once "of surpassing 
magnificence," is now in the possession of the Kingsbury 
heirs. There seems to be a little disagreement among 
the authorities as to whether it is the original Waldo 
Emerson house remodeled by Theodore Lyman ; or 
whether Theodore Lyman's mansion was an entirely new 
structure built after the Revolution, but local tradition 
ascribes the house to the earlier colonial period. 

The oldest house in Kennebunk is said to be the 
Parsons homestead. Tradition tells us that this house 



44 Old Colonial Houses 

was built by Joseph Storer, in 1758, and that it was the 
first painted house in the town. 



Kennebunkport, also, claims among its elegant and 
stately homesteads, some very ancient dwellings. The 
oldest is the Nevin house said to have been built as 
early as 1730, by Thomas Perkins, Junior. This was a 
typical old-time home, of the smaller low-studded two- 
story pattern with a "lean-to" in the rear; but it has 
been somewhat modernized by the addition of a front 
piazza which gives the house an attractive appearance as 
it stands on the banks of the Kennebunk river. 

Not far from the Nevin house is the Hoff house, 
also of very early date, but which still rests securely on 
its ancient foundations, overlooking from its windows 
the pretentious new hotels and the modern residences of 
the summer visitors at the "Port." 



THE COAST AND INLAND 
TOWNS 



" 'Tis the old familiar homestead, 
Its doors stand open wide ; 
One looks to the light of morning 

And one to the sunset side ; 
But cometh the guest from the eastward, 

Or cometh he from the west, 
The broad hall gives its welcome, 
Its welcome and its rest." 

— The Old Homestead. 



IV 

THE COAST AND INLAND TOWNS 



A 



S WE follow the coast of York County and reach 
the mouth of the Saco river, we come to a 
storied region which vividly recalls the days 
when 



" — traveled Jocelyn, factor Vines 
and stately Champernoon 
Heard on its banks the gray wolf's howl, 
the trumpet of the loon." 

In these early times the Saco Valley was a very alluring 
place to adventurers of both high and low degree ; and 
its shores were alive, not only with romance, but also 
with a very real and strenuous life. This is proved by 
the permanent foundations and substantial walls of the 
many old houses still existing in Biddeford and Saco. 

The oldest house in Biddeford is presumably the 
ancient Jordan garrison house built in 171 7, and origi- 
nally surrounded by a strong stone wall as a protection 
from the Indians. This house was erected by Captain 
Samuel Jordan, a man of great enterprise and public 
spirit who was identified with the early prosperity of the 
town. 

Another ancient, time-honored landmark in Biddeford 
is the old Emery house on the Pool Road which was 
built in 1730. Several generations of Emerys have lived 
and died in this house which still preserves a look of 
substantial antiquity although its exterior has been 
somewhat changed by modern improvements. 



48 Old Colonial Houses 

About 1730, also, Benjamin Haley, "an architect 
and builder of meeting-houses," erected for himself a 
two-story house on the north side of the Pool Road. 
This old house has sheltered five generations of the 
Haley family. The old Squire Pierson house, at 
Biddeford Pool dates back to 1737. The house of the 
Hon. Richworth Jordan, was built by this "chief 
magistrate of Biddeford" in 1742. The residence of 
Oliver Dean, a large and handsome house was erected in 
1768. Among other pre-Revolutionary houses in Bidde- 
ford are the Jeremiah Hill house, the Cleaves house, 
the McCobb house, the Allen house and the Chadwick- 
Coffin house. 



As we read the early history of each of these old 
towns of Maine we cannot fail to be impressed by the 
pre-eminence of some one of its inhabitants — some one 
leading man who commands attention for his success both 
in private life and in the public affairs of the community. 
Many of these men, in spite of the discouraging condi- 
tions of the times, amassed large fortunes, and left a 
famous "great house," as a monument to his family 
name. 

Such a man was Colonel Thomas Cutts of Saco, a 
descendant of Richard Cutts of Kittery. When a young 
man, Thomas Cutts had been employed in the great 
business establishment of Sir William Pepperell, where 
his youthful ambition was no doubt stimulated by the 
unexampled success of the Pepperells ; and in 1759, with 
a capital of one hundred dollars, he purchased a part 
of Indian Island at the entrance of the Saco river. Here 
he engaged in ship-building and the lumber trade and 
did much to develop the resources of the Saco valley. 



Coast and Inland Towns 49 

Soon after his purchase at Indian Island in 1759, he 
built a small cottage on the shore, and to this humble 
home he brought his bride Elizabeth, daughter of 
Dominicus Scammon of Saco. Thomas Cutts and his 
family lived for twenty years in this low-roofed cottage 
which is still standing on the island ; but as time passed 
and his fortune increased, he began to dream of building a 
splendid mansion which should rival the Pepperell and 
Sparhawk homes at Kittery. The foundations for such a 
house were laid, on the banks of Indian Island during the 
Revolution, and in 1782, the new home in its sumptuous 
elegance was completed. It still stands in an elevated 
location commanding a fine view of the Saco ; and with 
its gambrel-roof, handsome doors, ornamental window- 
caps and other exterior finish, it remains a vivid reminder 
of the great days of old. 

There were other old houses in Saco of no mean 
type ; as is shown by the old Moody tavern on Main St., 
now called the Barrows house ; the Captain Coit house ; 
the Warren house built in 1756 ; the Amos Chase house 
on Beach St., built in 1763 ; and a part of the Scammon 
garrison house built in 1736. All these old houses serve 
to indicate the degree of material prosperity enjoyed by 
the early settlers in the region of the Saco valley. 



The temptation to linger in the old towns of York 
county is very great ; but on the coast and hillsides of 
Maine stand many other ancient homes which claim our 
notice. As we pass through the town of Scarborough, it 
is very easy to call to mind the great old manor houses 
which once stood upon its historic shores. It was here 
that Cammock, a nephew of the Earl of Warwick, settled 
with his young wife, the "fair Margaret ; " and here they 



50 Old Colonial Houses 

built a "great house" and lived surrounded by their 
tenants in almost feudal state. Hither also came that 
young Englishman of noble birth, named Henry Jocelyn, 
who after the early death of Cammock, married the still 
young and beautiful Margaret ; but of their lordly home 
no vestige now remains. 

In later times the eminent Judge Southgate settled 
at Scarborough and built an imposing residence which 
was taken down and replaced about 1800 by the fine 
colonial mansion now known as the Southgate house. 

Another historic residence which should have been 
preserved in Scarborough was the King house. Richard 
King, the builder of this old house, was one of the wisest 
and most patriotic of our colonists, as his speech x to the 
freemen of Scarborough, in 1769, plainly shows ; and his 
three sons, born in this old homestead, were among the 
most noted men of their day and generation. These 
three famous brothers were Rufus King of New York, 
the American Minister to the Court of St. James; 
William King, the first Governor of Maine ; and Cyrus 
King, Member of Congress from Maine. Of their 
birthplace, once known as the "King mansion," only a 
small and inferior portion now remains. 

There are a number of other houses in Scarborough 
of an unpretentious type which doubtless antedate the 
Revolution. Among these is a remnant of the Vaughan 
garrison house which, in the troublesome days of Indian 
warfare, was an extensive building, or set of buildings, 
large enough to accommodate from sixteen to twenty 
families. Nothing now remains of this great garrison 
house except one small low-studded cottage which served 
as a schoolhouse for many years. 

1 Southgate's History of Scarborough, Coll. Maine Historical Society, Vol. Ill, 
P- 237. 



Coast and Inland Towns 51 

Following the well-known Indian trail in those 
olden times one came to Falmouth Neck where the city 
of Portland now stands. 

It is a matter of great regret that among all the 
beautiful homes in this city, many of which are of 
colonial style and finish, there is not one which we may 
call an example of the best class of pre-Revolutionary 
houses. Had not the town been burned by Mowatt, on 
that fateful eighteenth of October, 1775, many of its 
famous early homes would doubtless have been preserved 
to us. One of the houses, the loss of which is much to 
be lamented, was that of the noted old colonial parson, 
Thomas Smith. This house was built by the inhabitants 
of Falmouth Neck for their esteemed minister in 1728. 
It stood on Congress street opposite the head of India 
street. It was the "first house in the town to receive 
the ornament of a house paper which was put upon one 
of its rooms by nails." x This house was the last one 
which was destroyed in the conflagration of 1775. 

As late as 1897, there were seven houses standing 
in Portland which escaped destruction at the time of 
Mowatt's bombardment. These were Marston's tavern 
and the houses of Parson Deane, John Cox, Benjamin 
Larrabee, Joshua Freeman, Joseph McLellan and Bryce 
McLellan. 2 They had all suffered from changes and the 
ravages of time ; and within the last decade some of them 
have been permitted to drop entirely out of existence. 
The oldest house now standing in Portland is the Bryce 
McLellan house, 97 York street, which was built in 
1 73 1, by one of the founders of Portland whose name 
has been honorably perpetuated in the state. 

1 Memoir of Thomas Smith, p. 30. 

2 Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Series II, Vol. VIII, p. 77. 



52 Old Colonial Houses 

The name of McLellan is also associated with an 
old house in Gorham built by Hugh McLellan and his 
family. This was the first brick house in Cumberland 
county ; and still stands in an excellent state of preser- 
vation. The bricks of which it is constructed were 
made by Hugh McLellan, with the assistance of his wife 
and children, in a brick-yard on their own land. The 
house was begun in 1770, and finished in 1774. One of 
the bricks bears the date 1773, imprinted by the fingers 
of Elizabeth McLellan. The building is a massive two- 
story structure. It had originally a curb-roof and 
dormer-windows, but now bears a steep-pitched roof 
with projecting eaves. In the story of " Good Old 
Times," by Elijah Kellogg, there are some very vivid 
and interesting descriptions of the life of the early 
occupants of this old house, and many stories are related, 
as told by " Grannie Warren," who was Martha, the 
daughter of Hugh and Elizabeth McLellan. The family 
was noted in those early days for its energy, thrift and 
generous hospitality. No poor man was ever turned from 
the doors of the McLellan homestead without assistance. 

For nearly a century past this old mansion has been 
the home of Mrs. Caroline O. Wiggin, a lineal descendant 
of the first Hugh and Elizabeth McLellan. Here Mrs. 
Wiggin was born in 181 8; here she lived all her days and 
here she died in 1908. Throughout her long life the 
traditions of the family were faithfully cherished ; and 
the numerous relics, brought by Hugh and Elizabeth 
McLellan from Londonderry, Ireland, in 1733, have been 
sacredly preserved. The McLellans were of Scotch- 
Irish ancestry ; and were descended from Sir Hugh 
McLellan of Argyle, Scotland, who was knighted in 
1515. 1 

1 McLellan's History of Gorham, p. 658. 



Coast and Inland Towns 53 

About two miles from Gorham, on the old Buxton 
road stands another old colonial mansion called the 
Codman house. This house was built by one of the first 
settlers of the town whose name was John Cressy. It 
was purchased by James Codman of Portand in 1790 and 
under the regime of Madam Codman this fine old 
mansion became the center of the social and fashionable 
life of Gorham and its surrounding neighborhoods. 
Here the Longfellows, the Stephensons, the Smiths and 
many well-remembered people from Old Falmouth were 
often entertained. In its spacious wainscotted and high- 
paneled rooms, the minuet and the Virginia ieel were 
often danced by the gentry of the place ; "after which," 
as a local historian informs us, "Sally Green passed the 
wine and seed-cakes." 



The shores of Casco Bay always offered a tempting 
haven to our early colonists and, as one might expect, 
numerous old colonial homes are found in this vicinity. 
At Stroudwater, there are several houses of unusual 
interest. The old Broad Tavern, standing in spacious 
grounds set with magnificent elms, is a type of the 
ancient colonial inn. It is a large square house with a 
gabled portico in front and an entrance at the side. It 
was built by Thadeus Broad as early as 1766, and was 
one of the famous hostelries on the road to Boston. 
The Fickett house, built about the same time as the 
Broad Tavern, is constructed of massive timbers and 
served as a garrison. It is well preserved and is a fine 
specimen of the conventional house of the period. The 
quaint little Patrick house in Stroudwater is probably 
the oldest in the place, and looks as though it might 
stand in its quiet, unobtrusive way for a century to come. 



54 Old Colonial Houses 

But of all the old houses in Stroudwater, the Tate 
house has the most interesting history. Although now 
deserted and dilapidated, it still preserves its look of 
distinction among the other old dwellings of its time. 
It is evidently a house with a history and full of alluring 
suggestions. Even the front door, with its long silent 
knocker, tells of a life a little above and apart from the 
common lot of the early settlers of Maine. This house 
was erected about 1775. Its builder, as we are told, was 
a direct descendant of the De La Prey Abbey Tales of 
Northamptonshire, England ; * and, as if this were not 
enough to overawe the humble New England Chronicler, 
we are informed that George Tate, in his youth, was a 
seaman on board the first frigate built by Peter the 
Great ; and was afterwards appointed agent for the 
Russian Czar and came to Maine to buy spars for the 
Russian navy. More wonderful even than this, the son 
of George Tate became the Admiral of the Russian 
fleet ; and the Empress Catharine presented him with a 
portrait of herself set in diamonds, as a token of her 
personal favor. 

The home of George Tate of Stroudwater was one 
of taste and elegance and was furnished with many of 
the luxuries of Europe ; but to-day the ancient mansion 
stands empty and desolate : — 

" A kind of old Hobgoblin Hall, 
Now somewhat fallen to decay, 
With weather stains upon the wall, 
And stairways worn and crazy doors 
And creaking and uneven floors, 
And chimneys huge, and tiled and tall." 

The name of the builder of the Tate house is, 
however, not forgotten, but is still held in honored 

1 Sylvester's Romance of Casco Bay. p. 128. 




.. :-".ii.^. 



I ■ HI 



Old Tate House at Stroudwater 



Coast and Inland Towns 55 

remembrance as one of the founders, and a devoted 
warden, of the first Episcopal Church in Portland. 



As we follow the course of the few hardy and 
valiant men and women who boldly penetrated into the 
interior of Maine, we pass through many towns, each of 
which has its representative colonial home ; and it is 
astonishing to learn how soon the rude log huts of the 
first settlers gave place to the frame dwelling, and this, 
in turn, to the spacious mansion, frequently called the 
" Great House." 

Beginning with the town of Standish, named in 
honor of the staunch old Captain of Plymouth, we find 
two landmarks of pre-Revolutionary times. The older 
is a house formerly owned by Enoch Blake and now 
occupied by Rufus Gray. The second, in point of age, 
was built in 1774, and is now occupied by Thomas Shaw. 
There are other interesting old houses of a later date, 
and also a typical old New England church, built in 
1785, which are still preserved and venerated by the 
people of this historic town. 

New Gloucester, another town quite remote from 
the coast, has a handsome old house, known as the 
Foxcroft homestead, which was erected in 1765. This 
substantial and well-preserved house was built for the 
Rev. Samuel Foxcroft, a graduate of Harvard College, 
who was installed as pastor of the first church in New 
Gloucester in 1765. 

The ordination of Parson Foxcroft must have been 
quite a festive occasion, according to the following entry 
in the Journal of Parson Smith of Falmouth : " January 
16, Mr. Foxcroft was ordained at New Gloucester. 
We had a pleasant journey home ; Mr. L. was alert and 



56 Old Colonial Houses 

kept us merry. A jolly ordination ; we lost sight of 
decorum." ■ 

These vivid pen-pictures, by old Parson Smith, are 
done only in outline, but no very powerful imagination is 
needed to fill in the lights and shades. Subsequent 
records show that Parson Foxcroft proved himself, after 
his "jolly" ordination, a faithful Puritanic minister of 
the sterner type, and as strict in "decorum" as in the 
doctrines. His fine old parsonage is still in the posses- 
sion of his descendants. 

Another pioneer settler of New Gloucester was 
Isaac Parsons who erected a low gambrel-roofed cottage 
in 1762. This house is now the ell of the handsome 
Haskell residence which was built in 1783. It was then 
called the best house in Cumberland County, outside 
of Portland. 

The town of Yarmouth, like New Gloucester, has 
also a fine old house which was built as a parsonage ; and 
it is evident, from these examples, that in these olden 
times the best house in town was none too good for the 
minister. The Yarmouth parsonage was erected in 1771 
for Rev. Tristam Gilman. It is still called the " Old 
Gilman House." 

Another old house, near Prince's Point, long known 
as the " Granny Millett house," was built by a Mr. Ring 
some years before the Revolution, and subsequently 
purchased by Captain Millett with prize money obtained 
by privateering. 

The inland town of Durham also furnishes, in the 
fine old homestead of Captain Israel Bagley, a notable 
example of the large and substantial dwelling-houses of 
this period. This house, built in 1770, is shaded by 

1 The editor of Smith's Journal states that this " Mr. L.," who was so " alert," 
was Stephen Longfellow. Smith's Journal, p. 203. 



Coast and Inland Towns 57 

giant elms, and stands, as a monument of the hospitality 
of the times, and of those ever open doors which needed 
no swinging sign to announce a welcome to the approach- 
ing guest. 

On the road from Topsham to Bowdoinham, how- 
ever, the traveler was warmly greeted at a genuine 
old-fashioned tavern where " entertainment for man and 
beast " was generously provided, by John Hunter, as 
early as the year 1770. Hunter's tavern was familiarly 
known as the " Old Red House." It was a substantial, 
well-built house, with elaborate panel-work inside, and 
was finished on the outside with grooved clapboards 
split by hand. 

A second house on the road from Topsham to 
Bowdoinham, known as the Rogers homestead, was 
erected in 1773 ; and for ten years was used as a tavern. 
This house had a typical, old-fashioned fireplace in 
its large living-room. Its chimney, said to be the 
first one ever built in town, was put up by Mr. Andrew 
Whitehouse, "a mason of the first order." It is also 
recorded that the plastering of the walls of this house 
"excited the admiration of all who came from far and 
near to see it." 

The remote little hamlet of North Bowdoin also had 
its famous homes, the memory of which calls to mind the 
time when the three great men of the New England 
village were the minister, the doctor, and the lawyer, and 
when frequently the lawyer was the greatest of the 
three. As the village 'Squire was preeminent in the 
public and social life of the community, so the 'Squire's 
house had an importance beyond that of the other 
houses of the town. Ability and integrity were recog- 
nized in those days ; and the 'Squire's townspeople 
seem not to have begrudged him his renown, but rather 



58 Old Colonial Houses 

to have gloried in it. This phase of village life is forcibly- 
illustrated in the career of "Old 'Squire Dennett," who 
lived in the little hamlet of North Bowdoin. 

A hundred years ago this now almost forgotten 
village bade fair to be a large and prosperous town. It 
was settled by some of the best of our Maine colonists, 
who founded schools, built a meeting-house, and became 
a thrifty and eminently respectable community. Here 
in a pleasant and spacious house, erected in 1765, lived 
'Squire Dennett, the great man of affairs, the leader in 
public life at home, and the traveler who also kept his 
townspeople in touch with all the stirring events in the 
great world outside. He was representative to General 
Court ; he took a prominent part in the movement to 
separate Maine from Massachusetts ; and helped to draw 
up the constitution for the state of Maine when this 
separation was effected. He counted among his personal 
friends many notable men of Maine and our neighboring 
states, some of whom were frequently entertained in the 
commodious, low-roofed homestead at North Bowdoin. 
This house is still pointed out with pride as the home of 
one of Maine's able and far-seeing statesmen who served 
us well in the critical period of our state history. 

The 'Squire Dennett house was built by Elijah 
Jones ; and there is a still older house in North Bowdoin 
built by this same notable "first settler," in 1750, which 
is now known as "the Isaac Jones Place." 

In the little town of Winthrop, a settlement was 
made as early as 1765, and a number of houses still 
remain which were built prior to, or just after the 
Revolution. According to the local historian of the 
town, the homes of "Squier" Bishop, John Chandler, 
and John Fuller were built before the year 1776. The 
house of Mr. Forster, the first settler, was built about 



Coast and Inland Towns 59 

1768 but taken down in 1829 and the materials used in 
the house of his son Timothy Forster, Junior. 

The house of "Squier" Bishop built in 1769, has 
been moved a short distance from its original location, 
and thoroughly repaired and refitted, inside and out, so 
that it now shows no indication of its great age. 

Even in the town of Fairfield, far up the Kennebec, 
there is a small house which has always been remembered 
as the place where General Arnold passed the night on 
his ill-fated expedition to Quebec. This humble cottage, 
whose foundations were so securely laid sometime prior 
to 1775, was the home of David Emery the founder of 
the town of Fairfield. An enthusiastic and indomitable 
pioneer, he came with a few followers to this location in 
the year 1770. He had all the qualities of a leader, and 
lived honored and revered in his generation. He was 
aptly designated by the Indians as "a heap good pale 
face." 

Thus the indomitable pioneers of Maine pushed on 
with a courage and faith which now seem marvelous ; 
and the stories of the homes which they established are 
filled with a splendid realism and illumined by the fixed 
ideals of the men and women who thus built for posterity. 



FORT HALIFAX 



" For the benefit of the Massachusetts 
Province, William Shirley, her Governor, 
under the auspices of the most noble George 
Montague Dunk, Earl of Halifax, the highly 
distinguished friend and patron of the British 
Provinces throughout America, has reared this 
fortress, September 6, 1754." 

— Inscription on Foundation Stone of 
Fort Halifax. 



V 
FORT HALIFAX 

^■KHE history of the Kennebec valley yields to the 
/ 1 student a rich harvest, not only of tradition and 
^^^ romance, but of that sterner stuff of which the 
every-day life of the colonists consisted, and 
which constitutes a most remarkable chapter in the 
ancient chronicles of Maine. 

As monuments of this historic past, there are still 
standing on the banks of the Kennebec, two old forts, 
weather-beaten and worn with age, but still eloquent 
witnesses of the early struggles, hardships and triumphs 
of the first settlers on the Kennebec. These ancient 
landmarks are Fort Halifax at Winslow and Fort 
Western at Augusta. 

The story of these old forts properly begins with 
that most interesting event in the first opening of the 
Kennebec valley, the coming of the Plymouth men, with 
a shallop-load of corn to trade with the Indians at 
Koussinoc, where the city of Augusta now stands. It 
was truly a dramatic and picturesque episode in our 
early history when Edward Winslow and " six of ye old 
standards" sailed up the Kennebec and first saw the 
smoke curling from the Indian wigwams where the 
ancestral fires of the Abenakis had burned from ages 
unremembered. As we look back now upon the scene, 
the historic perspective gives it a striking effect of which 
the participants themselves were doubtless quite uncon- 
scious. It was in the autumn of the year 1625, 



64 Old Colonial Houses 

" And fair was the river valley, 

Where the sunlight flashed like wine, 
And the scarlet cheeks of the maple blazed 
On the heart of the sombre pine." 

Standing at the door of the birch-bark wigwam, we 
see a man of courtly mien, accustomed to the pomp and 
ceremony of the aristocratic circles of England, but who 
now comes asking a boon, as a friend and brother of the 
simple savages of the forest. An inborn dignity which 
betrays neither surprise nor astonishment, marks the 
red-skinned chieftain who this day stands as host ; and a 
mat is hospitably laid for the stranger in the lodge of 
the "gentle Abenaki." 

When Edward Winslow and his companions returned 
to Plymouth, they carried, in return for their cargo of 
corn, a shallop-load of beaver-skins of great value. 
Governor Bradford gives a vivid account of this voyage 
in his " History of Plymouth." 

"After the harvest of this year (1625)", writes 
Bradford, " they sent out a boatload of come, forty or 
fifty leagues to the eastward, at a river called Kennebeck, 
it being one of those two shallops their carpenter had 
built for them two years before, for bigger vessel they 
had none. They had laid a deck over her midships, to 
keep ye corn dry, but ye men were faine to stand it out 
in all weathers without shelter and that time of the year 
it begins to grow tempestous, but God preserved them 
and gave them good success for they brought home 700 
pounds of beaver besides some furs, having little or 
nothing else, but this corne which themselves had raised 
out of ye earth." This voyage was made by Mr. 
Winslow and some of "ye old standards," for "seamen 
they had none." 

It was through the profits of this trip and the 
subsequent trade with the Indians on the Kennebec, 



Fort Halifax 65 

that the Pilgrim Fathers were enabled to discharge their 
debt to the London Company and to establish their 
colony in the new world. Realizing at once the great 
advantage of this commercial intercourse with the Ken- 
nebec Indians, a trading-post was established "above in 
ye river," as Bradford writes, "in ye most convenient 
place for trade" . . . and furnished "with commodities 
for that end both in winter and summer, not only with 
corne, but with such other commodities as ye fishermen 
had traded with them, as coats, shirts, rugs and blankets, 
peas, prunes &c." This trading post was successfully 
maintained for more than thirty years. During this 
period, some of the most eminent men of the colony 
were sojourners on the banks of the Kennebec, or were 
established here for a term of years as agents of the 
Plymouth merchants. 

It is not without a thrill of emotion that we stand 
to-day upon these shores trodden so long ago by the feet 
of our Pilgrim ancestors. Among the commanders of 
the trading-post of whose service we have definite record 
were John Howland, John Winslow, Thomas Southworth 
and Captain Thomas Willett, a young man who had been 
a member of the congregation at Leyden and who 
followed the Pilgrims to New England in 1632; and the 
record of the life of the men of Plymouth at this ancient 
trading-post and of their intercourse with the friendly 
Abenaki Indians, holds, of necessity, a unique place in 
the early chronicles of New England. It is a bit of 
history which can never repeat itself. The scope of this 
sketch, however, permits only a brief statement of the 
connecting links between the early Plymouth trading- 
post and the more recent outposts, Fort Halifax and 
Fort Western on the Kennebec. 



66 Old Colonial Houses 

In the year 1649, while the traffic with the Indians 
was still very profitable, the Plymouth trading-post was 
leased to five prominent men of the colony. These men 
were Governor Bradford, Thomas Prence, John Winslow, 
William Paddy and Thomas Willett. Twelve years later, 
in 1 66 1, these Plymouth merchants sold the patent, for 
four hundred pounds, to Antipas Boies, Edward Tyng, 
Thomas Brattle and John Winslow. 

These new proprietors very soon abandoned the 
trading-post. The buildings fell into decay. The 
picturesque Indian village and the little " Mission of the 
Assumption " also vanished from the shores of the Ken- 
nebec. During the long and devastating Indian wars 
which followed, the Kennebec patent lay dormant, until 
1 749, when the heirs of the above mentioned proprietors 
began their efforts to induce settlers to come to these 
valuable lands. 

At this time, the Frankfort Plantation was already 
successfully established on the site of the present town 
of Dresden. Here Fort Shirley was built in 1751, and 
named in honor of Governor Shirley of Massachusetts. 
An imposing court-house and an Episcopal church were 
erected ; and a number of families of eminence and cul- 
ture settled in this pioneer town. 

But the inhabitants of this little " plantation " felt 
very insecure when they heard the rumors of the French 
and Indian wars. They knew that the Kennebec was 
the highway of their Indian foes who were the allies of 
the French in Canada. These Indians possessed the 
knowledge of all the carrying places and the secret trails 
through the forests, by way of the Chaudiere to Quebec, 
and might at any time sweep down upon the hamlet at 
Fort Shirley. It therefore seemed necessary that forti- 
fications should be built farther up the river, in order to 



Fort Halifax 67 

prevent the French from establishing a stronghold there, 
as well as to guard the settlers from the Indians. 

This necessity was promptly recognized by the 
government of Massachusetts, and in 1751, Governor 
Shirley, in behalf of the Great and General Assembly, 
proposed to erect a fort at Ticonic where the town of 
Winslow now stands, providing the Plymouth Company 
would build a similar fortification at Cushnoc. This the 
Plymouth Company agreed to do, and it is interesting to 
note the names of the committee which then represented 
the Plymouth Proprietors, for they are still familiar to all 
dwellers upon the Kennebec as the promoters, not only 
of the material, but of the social, intellectual and religious 
interests of the early settlements of the Kennebec 
valley. These men were John Hancock Esq., Dr. 
Sylvester Gardiner, Mr. James Bowdoin, Mr. William 
Bowdoin and Mr. Benjamin Hallowell. 1 

Gov. Shirley at once set out for the Kennebec on a 
tour of inspection in order to locate the new fort. With 
an escort of eight hundred men, he sailed first for Old 
Falmouth, now Portland, where he made his head- 
quarters ; and a brief description of Gov. Shirley's visit 
in this old historic town, in the year 1754, will be of 
especial interest. At this time, Portland was a little town 
of one hundred and fifty families, living upon a thinly 
settled coast, and it must have been a wonderful event 
when the royal governor, with his grand military escort, 
arrived in port. He was greeted with booming of guns 
from the fort and from the men-of-war in the harbor, and 
escorted from Long wharf to the Province House by a 
gorgeous procession of soldiers and grand dignitaries. 
There were many high officials from Massachusetts and 
New Hampshire, as well as from the Province of Maine, 

1 3 Book Kennebec Co. Records, 63-65. 



68 Old Colonial Houses 

who joined in the grand parade. To complete the 
pageant, two bands of Indians, Norridgewocks and 
Penobscots, in all their splendor of paint and feathers, 
were also present in response to the summons of the 
Governor and made a treaty which they celebrated by 
an Indian dance and other ceremonies. 

Parson Smith, a notable man of Old Falmouth, kept 
a journal during these exciting days from which I make 
the following extracts : 

June 1 8, 1754. We have been painting and fitting 
up our house for the treaty which is approaching. 

June 25. Eight hundred soldiers got in and 
encamped on Bang's Island. 

June 26. The Governor got in this morning and 
lodged at Mr. Foxes. 1 

June 28. Yesterday and to-day we had a vast con- 
course dined us at our expense. 

June 29. The gentlemen yesterday met the Nor- 
ridgewock Indians and proposed to them the building of 
a fort at Teuconic. 

July 1. The Norridgewock Indians gave their 
answer and refused the fort's being built at Teuconic. 

July 2. The treaty was signed between the 
Governor and the Norridgewock Indians. 

July 3. The Indians had their dance. 

When these preliminaries were ended, Governor 
Shirley proceeded to Taconnet, now Winslow, where he 
located Fort Halifax upon a point of land formed by the 
Sebasticook and the Kennebec rivers. 

The reason for this choice of location is given by 
Governor Shirley who states that the only known 
communication which the Penobscots have with the 

1 Mr. Fox lived in one of the best houses on Exchange Street. 



Fort Halifax 69 

Kennebec Indians is through the Sebasticook which 
they cross within ten miles of Taconnet Falls, and their 
most commodious passage from the Penobsot to Quebec 
is through the Kennebec to the Chaudiere, so that a 
fort here cuts off the Penobscots, not only from the 
Norridgewocks, but also from Quebec. 

The site for the fort was laid out with due form and 
ceremony, a salute was fired, and the works were named 
Fort Halifax in honor of the Earl of Halifax, then British 
Secretary of State and "First Lord of Trade and 
Plantations." 

The commission for building the fort was entrusted 
to General John Winslow, and orders were given for 
laying the corner-stone, and also a complimentary stone 
with a Latin inscription to the Earl of Halifax ; after 
which, as it is recorded, Governor Shirley returned to 
Falmouth, and thence to Boston, where he was received 
"with vivid congratulations." 

After the Governor's departure old Parson Smith 
made this entry in his Journal, "September 8: Thus 
ends a summer scene of as much bluster as a Cambridge 
Commencement." 

The original plans for this fort drawn by General 
Winslow ' may now be seen in the State House at 
Boston. The works consisted of a central block house, 
officers' quarters, barracks for the men and a large 
parade-ground. They were ready for occupancy in 
September, 1754. The fort was garrisoned with one 

1 General John Winslow was the great grandson of Governor Edward Winslow 
of Plymouth. It was this same General John Winslow who, with three 
hundred men, forcibly removed the Arcadians from Grand Pre, as related 
by Longfellow : but General Winslow evidently took no pleasure in this 
task for he wrote to Governor Shirley that it was " the most disagreeable 
piece of service in which he was ever engaged." 

Collections Maine Historical Society, Vol. VIII., p. 280. 



yo Old Colonial Houses 

hundred men and the command was given to Captain 
William Lithgow. 

But the plans for the fort as laid out by General 
Winslow proved very unsatisfactory to Captain Lithgow, 
who, in one of his letters to Governor Shirley, asks what 
shall be done in relation to completing the fort, "for 
as it now stands it is one of the most extraordinary 
fortresses for ordinariness I have ever seen or heard of." 

The first years at Fort Halifax were marked by 
great suffering on the part of the men and of great care 
and anxiety on the part of the commander. The soldiers 
were in the most deplorable condition for want of shoes, 
clothing, bedding and food. Captain Lithgow writes in 
one of his letters to Governor Shirley : " We have now 
but four weeks allowance of bread in this fort, one barrell 
of rum, and one do. of molasses and God knows when we 
shall gitt any suplys from Fort Western on account of 
ye snow is so deep." 

Governor Shirley's replies were always couched in 
terms of sympathy and encouragement ; but he seems to 
have been unable to render any very prompt or efficient 
aid. The men lived in constant fear of an attack by the 
French and Indians, especially in the spring when the 
river opened and the season was favorable for the descent 
of the Indians in their canoes. Morover the men of the 
Maine settlements were very unwilling to enlist for 
service at Fort Halifax, and were therefore frequently 
impressed into the ranks, and obliged to leave their 
families at home destitute and uncared for. For this 
reason the soldiers at the fort were often in a state of 
discontent and insubordination. 

Under such distressing and discouraging circum- 
stances, William Lithgow proved himself to be a man of 
unflinching courage and staunch devotion to his post. It 



Fort Halifax yi 

is also pleasant to know that, in the midst of his 
strenuous duties, the gallant commander did not forget 
to provide for the pleasure as well as the comfort of the 
ladies at the fort, but often, in summer arranged picnic 
parties for the officers' families upon an island below 
Ticonic Falls ; and in winter the soldiers were often 
detailed to clear a path upon the river so that the ladies 
might have sliding parties upon the ice. 

It is really difficult for us to conceive of what the 
life of the women and children must have been in these 
solitary, old-time strongholds ; and yet we often find in 
these outposts, on the borders of the wilderness, the true 
type of the old Colonial Dame who, even though suffering 
from cold, hunger or other deprivations, never forgot the 
honor and dignity of her station. Such a woman was the 
wife of Captain William Lithgow who here in the wilder- 
ness of Maine reared a family of nine children. Her sons 
became honorable and influential men. Her daughters 
were remarkable for their personal charms and accom- 
plishments. The oldest daughter, Sarah, who married 
the gallant young Captain Samuel Howard, was famed for 
her beauty from Fort Halifax to Boston Town. Another 
daughter, Charlotte, was celebrated for her musical 
talent ; while a third daughter was skilled in penmanship, 
and could copy a legal paper with the utmost elegance 
and exactness. It was said of all the members of the 
Lithgow family that they were "remarkable for their 
genteel and elegant deportment." 

Evidently Mistress William Lithgow did not intend 
that her family should succumb to their environment. 

At the close of the war with France, Captain William 
Lithgow engaged in trade at Fort Halifax and acquired a 
large property. His sons and daughters became allied 
by marriage with the most wealthy and influental families 



72 Old Colonial Houses 

of the province. A few years before the Revolution he 
removed to Georgetown where he built a handsome 
residence. Here his doors were always open to the 
rich or poor ; and his home was widely famed for its 
hospitality. 

At the time of Arnold's march to Quebec, Fort 
Halifax had been demolished and could no longer be 
called a fortification. Some of the buildings had been 
removed, and Ensign Pattee was keeping a tavern in the 
officers' quarters; and here Arnold was probably enter- 
tained. This building was taken down in 1797. 

The corner-stone of Fort Halifax, which was laid by 
order of Governor Shirley in 1754, has been preserved to 
the present day. In 1845, it was placed by Judge 
Redington ' in the State House at Augusta ; and we find 
in the statements of some of our recent authorities that 
the corner-stone is still in the State Capitol. The fact 
is, however, that this valuable relic was removed from 
the State House, at the time of one of its recent renova- 
tions, and with other antiquities and curios was deposited 
in the geological cabinets of Colby College at Waterville. 
It is a slate stone of irregular shape, and was originally 
placed in the foundation of the central block house, 
afterwards the south flanker of Captain Lithgow's fortress. 
It bears this inscription : 

THIS CORN'. 
STONE, LAID 
BY DIRECTION 
OF GOVERNOR 
SHIRLEY, 1754. 

A second foundation stone laid by order of Governor 
Shirley, and which bore a Latin inscription, is said to 

1 Collection of the Maine Historical Society, Vol. VIII., p. 281. 



Fort Halifax 73 

have been removed from Fort Halifax to the Winslow 
homestead at Marshfield, Massachusetts, by a son of 
General Winslow. 

The ancient block-house which is now known by the 
name of "Old Fort Halifax," stood at the southeast corner 
of the parade-ground laid out by Captain Lithgow. It is 
a venerable structure, twenty feet square, with a project- 
ing upper story ; and although weather-worn and defaced 
by the iconoclastic hand of the relic-hunter, it still 
remains a most valuable and interesting example of the 
"strong defensible houses " of colonial days in Maine. 



FORT WESTERN 



We have no colors for the fort." 

— Capt. James Howard, 1755. 



m 



VI 
FORT WESTERN 

'HILE Fort Halifax was in process of erection, 
in 1754, Fort Western was built, by the 
Plymouth Company, at Cushnoc, where the 
city of Augusta now stands. Its main build- 
ing, now standing, is one hundred feet in length 
and thirty-two feet wide. It was constructed of heavy 
hewn timbers and still shows its deeply set windows 
and massive walls a foot in thickness. In its early 
days, this building was the home of the commandant 
and his family, and also served as barracks for the 
soldiers and as a storehouse for supplies. It was sur- 
rounded by a fine parade-ground, enclosed within a 
double palisade. The approach to the fort was guarded 
by two sentry-boxes, twelve feet square. A massive 
blockhouse, similar to the one at Winslow, stood at the 
northeast corner and another at the southwest corner of 
the parade-ground. These blockhouses were built with 
port-holes for cannon in their upper stories and sur- 
mounted, on their hip-roofs, by sentry-boxes with open- 
ings for the muskets of the guard. Four cannon were 
mounted in the blockhouses, and a garrison of twenty 
men was established here, in 1754, under the command 
of Captain James Howard. This new outpost was named 
Fort Western in honor of a gentleman of Governor 
Shirley's acqaintance in Sussex, England. 

The erection of Fort Western was completed with 
many difficulties. Even after the clearing had been 



78 Old Colonial Houses 

made on the river's bank, the workmen did not dare to 
remain there long enough to prepare the timbers for 
building without the protection of a military force. 
Therefore all the logs for the fort were hewn and fitted 
at Frankfort under the guns of Fort Shirley, and floated 
up the river by the men who kept constantly on the 
watch lest they should be attacked by the Indians from 
the ravines along the shore. 

Captain James Howard to whom the command of 
the fort was given was a brave officer and an intelligent, 
enterprising and patriotic man. He was of Scotch-Irish 
descent, and had emigrated from the north of Ireland 
about 1735. He settled first on the St. George river on 
the Waldo Patent ; but on the establishment of the new 
military post on the Kennebec, he removed with his 
family to Fort Western where he became permanently 
identified with the growth and prosperity of the place. 

In those early days at Fort Western, life was full of 
adventure for the men and boys, and of self-sacrifice and 
privation for the women and children. The household 
supplies were irregular and often insufficient for the 
needs of the family. In the summer the merchandise 
was brought from Falmouth in whale-boats secured by 
Governor Shirley for the transportation of goods ; but in 
the winter everything received at Fort Western was 
brought up the frozen Kennebec on hand-sleds drawn by 
the men upon the ice. 

A letter written by Captain Howard to Governor 
Shirley, on the 5th of March, 1755, states that an attack 
on the fort, by the French and Indians was expected and 
that more cannon were needed for the defense of the 
place. " The number of men is small," he writes, "and the 
ground in the vicinity of the fort is advantageous for a 
surprise. The supplies here, intended for Fort Halifax, 



Fort Western 79 

will induce the enemy to attack us. The enemy may 
come and secret themselves in one of the gullies within 
one hundred yards of the fort, and we can not annoy 
them. When they see us leave the fort to act as guard, 
to convey stores to Fort Halifax they can lie by and 
attack it." The writer then adds this appealing line: 
"We have no colors for the fort." * 

After the fall of Quebec in 1759, an< ^ the close of 
the war with France, there was a great improvement in 
the condition of affairs on the Kennebec. The fear of 
Indian raids passed away, and settlers were induced to 
take up lands in this locality. The little village clustered 
around Fort Western was then called Cushnoc, a corrup- 
tion of the old Indian name of Koussinoc. It was also 
commonly spoken of as "The Fort," while another flour- 
ishing little hamlet, two miles below on the Kennebec 
was called "The Hook." In 1771, these two sister 
villages were incorporated as the town of Hallowell, and 
named in honor of Mr. Benjamin Hallowell. 

In the meantime, the Howard family had acquired 
wealth, as well as influence, through the trading-post 
which they, like their Plymouth predecessors, maintained 
at Cushnoc. Many articles of comfort and luxury were 
brought to their home ; and in 1775, Dr. Senter writes of 
them as " an exceedingly hospitable, opulent and polite 
family." 

The wife of Captain Howard was a beautiful woman 
who dispensed a gracious and stately hospitality at Fort 
Western. As Captain Howard was the most prominent 
man of his day in this locality, all distinguished guests 
were entertained at his board, and many social and official 
functions were observed beneath his roof. It was said, 

1 Collections of The Maine Historical Society, Vol. VII., p. 184. 



80 Old Colonial Houses 

in proof of his hospitality, that the fire upon his hearth 
never went out throughout the year. 

All public meetings in these early days were held 
at Fort Western. The first public religious service was 
held here in 1763, and was conducted by the Rev. Jacob 
Bailey of Pownalborough who writes that he had "a 
considerable congregation of the upper settlers " on this 
occasion. 

The first marriage at Cushnoc was that of Captain 
Howard's daughter Margaret who was wooed and won 
by Captain James Patterson. The wedding was solem- 
nized, Feb. 8th, 1763, in the great living-room of the 
fort ; and the bride was married by her father who, in 
his office of justice of the peace, was the only person 
in the settlement qualified to perform the marriage 
ceremony. Here too, in 1766, Captain Samuel Howard 
brought his bride, the beautiful Sarah Lithgow, from 
Fort Halifax. They subsequently removed to Boston ; 
but Colonel William Howard, another son of Captain 
James, lived with his family at Fort Western, until his 
death in 1810. 

John Howard, the oldest son of James Howard was 
second in command at Fort Western during the French 
war. While a very young man, he was the hero of a 
remarkable exploit which merits a more prominent place 
than it has heretofore received in the history of our 
Colonial Wars. 

It was in the year 1759, that General Wolfe was 
laying siege to Quebec, and the whole country was await- 
ing the result with the most intense anxiety. One day 
a travel-worn messenger arrived at Fort Western, after a 
long and wearisome journey from Crown Point. He 
bore an important dispatch from General Amherst to 
General Wolfe which must be conveyed at once to Quebec. 



Fort Western 81 

Between Fort Western and this stronghold in 
Canada, lay two hundred miles of unbroken wilderness. 
The route followed the waterway of the Kennebec, and 
then led through the swamps and morasses of the Lake 
Megantic region. There were streams to be forded, 
rapids to be run, and long portages to be made through 
almost inpenetrable forests, where the Indian foe was 
constantly lurking in ambush, and many other dangers 
to be surmounted before the English commander could 
be reached at Quebec. 

Who would volunteer to go ? 

There was a breathless pause. Then John Howard 
arose and said : " Give me the dispatches. I will go." 
And safely and faithfully, the young hero performed his 
mission and placed the dispatches in the hands of Gen- 
eral Wolfe at Quebec. 

Professor Justin H. Smith, in his history of " Arnold's 
March to Quebec," tells us that, "in 1759, General 
Amherst sent a messenger to General Wolfe, by way of 
the Kennebec;" but he does not tell us that General 
Amherst's messenger rested at Fort Western while the 
brave young John Howard faced all the perils of the 
Maine wilderness to complete his errand. Let the name 
of John Howard be given the honor it deserves in the 
list of our colonial heroes. 



As we gaze to-day on the old and weather-stained 
walls of Fort Western, it is very difficult to recall the 
splendid scenes which have been witnessed within its 
doors ; but we know that stately old-time dames, with 
their brocaded silks, embroidered laces, and high-heeled 
shoes, have stepped proudly over these time-worn thres- 
holds ; and that brave and gallant gentlemen resplendent 



82 Old Colonial Houses 

in their velvet coats and silver-buckled knee-breeches, 
have figured at many grand dinners while the guests 
discussed local politics, and the news from abroad, at the 
"opulent" board of the Howards. 

But of all the memorable days in the history of this 
old fort, the greatest and most exciting, without doubt, 
was the eventful 24th of September, 1775, when General 
Arnold, with his officers and army of over a thousand 
men, was entertained at Cushnoc. The inhabitants of 
the whole valley of the Kennebec from Pownalborough 
up to Fort Western had been thrown into a state of wild 
excitement at the appearance of Arnold's fleet, and of 
the army which was to march through the forest to 
Quebec. Arnold had first stopped at Gardinerstown 
where his batteaux were built, but on Saturday afternoon, 
September 23d, his vessel, "The Broad Bay," anchored at 
Fort Western. 1 Arnold and some of his officers were 
entertained at the " Great House " which was then the 
residence of Captain James Howard ; others were quar- 
tered at the Fort where Colonel William Howard then 
resided. The men encamped on the parade-ground of 
the fort, and the neighboring" river shores. On the 
following Monday, the army was again upon the way. 
This brief respite at Fort Western must have seemed, in 
after days, like a rest in Paradise, to the soldiers of this 
ill-fated expedition, many of whom died of starvation and 
exposure on the route to Quebec. 

There is a tradition that on this memorable Sunday, 
a great feast was held at Fort Western, in honor of the 
army, to which all the prominent inhabitants of the 
Kennebec settlements were invited. Mr. Codman, in 
his book entitled "Arnold's Expedition to Quebec," 

1 "Arnold's March from Cambridge to Quebec," by Justin H. Smith, p. 83. 



Fort Western 83 

with a few vivid touches of imagination, thus minutely 
describes this banquet. 

" There is mention of one feast in particular — a 
monstrous barbecue of which three bears, roasted in 
true frontier style, were the most conspicuous victims. 
'Squire Howard and his neighbors contributed corn, 
potatoes and melons from their gardens, quintals of 
smoked salmon from their store-houses, and great golden 
pumpkin pies from their kitchens. As if this were not 
sufficient, venison was plenty, and beef, pork and bread 
were added to the commissary's supplies. Messengers 
were sent to other local notables — William Gardiner at 
Cobbosseecontee ; Major Colburn and 'Squire Oakman at 
Gardinerstown ; Judge Bowman, Colonel Cushing, Cap- 
tain Goodwin, and 'Squire Bridge of Pownalborough. 
Social opportunities were not overfrequent on the fron- 
tier, and all the guests made haste to accept, and came 
accompanied by their wives. 

To the sound of drum and fife the soldiers were 
marched up to the loaded tables and seated by the 
masters of ceremony, while the guests and officers sat by 
themselves at a separate table. Dr. Senter and Dr. 
Dearborn, as particularly familiar with anatomy, were 
selected to carve the bears, and amidst the most uproar- 
ious jollity the feast proceeded. At the end, toasts were 
drunk — presumably in the never-failing rum punch of 
New England — and the entertainment concluded amid 
patriotic airs performed upon drum and fife and the 
heartiest good humor of the entire company." 1 

Now this is a very realistic picture of such a feast as 
might have been given at Fort Western to the brave 
men just setting out upon their toilsome march through 
an unknown wilderness ; but Professor Justin H. Smith, 

1 "Arnold's Expedition to Quebec," by Tohn Codman, 2nd. p. 41. 



84 Old Colonial Houses 

who differs from Mr. Codman in many of the details of 
Arnold's expedition, and who relentlessly notes every 
deviation of the latter from the path of exact research, 
discredits the tradition of this sumptuous and formal 
banquet. Smith very plausibly asserts that, as it was 
uncertain when the army would arrive, it would not have 
been feasible to call the guests from a distance ; and also 
that Arnold and his officers were too busy getting the 
army into marching order to sit out a long social banquet. 
Moreover, as Haskell states in his Journal, the 24th of 
September was "cold and rainy," and not "a fine Indian 
Summer " day, according to Codman's description. 
Therefore Professor Smith inquires : " Would it have 
been agreeable to sit out a long feast under such circum- 
stances ? And even if the three bears could have been 
properly barbecued, what would have been the condition 
of Mr. Codman's pumpkin pies ?" 

From our own point of view, we can not quite agree 
with either Mr. Codman or Professor Smith. We must 
of course, although unwillingly, give up our cherished 
tradition of an elaborate and formal banquet, with music 
and toasts and speeches, as described by Mr. Codman. 
On the other hand, this Sunday, September 24th, must 
have been a memorable day at Fort Western, and one 
preeminently worthy of record ; and even though we are 
obliged to eliminate from the feast the three bears and 
the pumpkin pies, the important fact still remains that 
Arnold and his officers were "well entertained" on this 
day. This is explicitly stated by Major Meigs, Dr. 
Dearborn and Dr. Senter in their journals. 

The rank and file of the army must also have been 
served with rations of some sort on this occasion. The 
companies may not have marched to the tables to the 
music of fife and drum, but there must have been much 



Fort Western 85 

going to and fro and many supplies distributed in order 
to feed this army of a thousand hungry men, after their 
toilsome passage up the river. And if the neighboring 
gentry, with their wives, were not present in their best 
array, there is no doubt that the men and boys from all 
the settlements flocked to see the sight, when Arnold's 
flotilla came up the Kennebec and landed at Fort 
Western. 

Moreover, to our minds, it was the guests, and not 
the food or manner of serving, that made the feast ; and 
surely a larger number of notable men never gathered 
around the opulent board of the Howards than on this 
day. 

The guest of honor was, of course, Colonel Benedict 
Arnold, then a brave and loyal young patriot, already 
famous for his exploits at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, 
and with no shadow of his future upon his handsome 
manly face. 

Closely associated with Arnold, was Captain Daniel 
Morgan of the Rifle corps of Virginia. Morgan is said 
to have been a large strong man of impetuous temper, 
but prudent in war and totally fearless in danger. He 
fought in almost every battle of the war . . . and turned 
the tide for the Americans in many a hard fought field. * 

Prominent also, among the guests, was Captain 
Henry Dearborn, who had already fought at the battle of 
Bunker Hill and who subsequently served through the 
eight years of the Revolution. Captain Dearborn was, 
unquestionably, one of the most remarkable men of his 
period. As Hanson writes : " He was essentially a 
military statesman, a man of varied talents and attain- 
ments . . . one of the most honest and patriotic men of 
the Revolution and one of the truly great men of 

1 Codman's " Arnold's Expedition to Quebec," p. 322. 



86 Old Colonial Houses 

America." Dearborn's career after the war was equally 
remarkable. He was twice appointed to Congress, was 
commander-in-chief of the American army under President 
Monroe and Minister to Portugal in 1822. He was an 
able and voluminous writer and at his death left about 
one hundred volumes in print and manuscript. 

Other distinguished officers were Major Meigs, who 
in 1777 was made colonel; and for his brilliant service 
at Long Island was presented by Congress with a sword 
and a vote of thanks ; Captain John Joseph Henry, that 
gallant youth whose " thirst for glory led him to volunteer 
clandestinely in a company of riflemen," and who was 
taken prisoner at Quebec ; Adjutant Christian Febiger, a 
Dane, who served from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, and 
who was popularly known in the army as " Old Denmark ; " 
Lieutenant Colonel Greene, who devoted the remainder 
of his brave young life to the service of his country ; 
Major Ward, who was with Washington at Valley Forge, 
afterwards a successful merchant in New York and the 
grandfather of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe; Dr. Isaac Senter, 
the surgeon, who afterwards acquired an international 
reputation in his profession ; and the brave chaplain, 
Rev. Dr. Spring, eminent in the theological circles of 
colonial days. Conspicuous among all these noted men, 
was the handsome and charming young Aaron Burr, who 
had volunteered in his country's cause and who, in the 
glow of youthful enthusiasm, was just beginning the 
brilliant career which ended so ingloriously. 

Somewhere, too, on the outskirts of the camp, we 
fancy, were two women, the brave, devoted, but as we 
judge now unwisely patriotic women, who elected to 
follow their husbands through the perils and hardships 
of the march to Quebec. These women were Mrs. 
Sergeant Grier and Mrs. Jemima Warner. Of Mrs. 



Fort Western 87 

Warner we have one more and a very sorrowful picture. 
It is at the camp on the Chaudiere river, where the men 
lay in the most abject suffering, many of them dying 
with starvation. "She had come," writes Codman, 
" after twenty miles of walking and running to catch up, 
breathless, panting, torn and disheveled, her dead hus- 
band's cartridge belt her girdle, and his musket in her 
hand. Faithful unto death, she had remained with him 
until he had succumbed to hunger and exhaustion ; had 
buried him with leaves, and then, at last, looked for her 
own safety." 

Last, but not least, in the picturesque scene, stands 
Jacataqua, the brave Indian princess of Swan Island. 
This beautiful Indian girl, in whose veins flowed the 
mixed blood of the French and the Abenaki races, had 
met the handsome and fascinating young Aaron Burr a 
few days before when he landed at Swan Island with 
some of the other officers of Arnold's army. We, who 
know the fascination which Aaron Burr always had for 
the women of his acquaintance, are not surprised that 
the guileless maiden of the forest should conceive at 
once a "romantic attachment" for the handsome 
stranger, and follow him upon his journey up the 
Kennebec. 

Whether the proud mistress of the "Great House" 
received at her board the equally proud Franco-Indian 
girl, or the two humbler women of the rifle corps, the 
journalists of the time have not told us ; but the story of 
these three women lends a gleam of romance as well as 
a shadow of tragedy to the scene, and the minor parts 
which they played in the great drama of Arnold's 
expedition still appeal to the hearts of the women of 
to-day. 



88 Old Colonial Houses 

The Howards remained for many years the most 
influential family at Cushnoc. In 1770, James Howard 
built the "Great House," for his own residence. It was 
located about a mile above the fort. This was the first 
frame dwelling in Augusta, and was " the most splendid 
house" of its period in this locality. It was unfortu- 
nately destroyed by fire in 1866. James Howard also 
owned the fort buildings where his son William lived 
until the death of the latter in 1810. William and 
Samuel Howard carried on an extensive lumber and 
shipping business. Their vessels plied regularly between 
Fort Western and Falmouth, Boston, and other ports. 
They apparently held a monopoly of the business, for, 
on one occasion, when some other traders proposed to 
establish themselves at this settlement, the question was 
seriously asked : "Will the Howards let them come ? " 

But the Howards were always public-spirited men. 
The prosperity of the early settlement around Fort 
Western was due to their courage, energy, and fostering 
care, and to this day, James Howard, the commander of 
the old fort on the Kennebec, is held in honorable 
remembrance as the " Father and benefactor of the city 
of Augusta." 




Pi 



ON THE RIVER AND HARBOR 
SHORES 



" We have no title-deeds to house or lands ; 
Owners and occupants of earlier dates 
From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands, 
And hold in mortmain still their old estates." 

— Longfellow . 



VII 

ON THE RIVER AND HARBOR SHORES 

/0tL S WE sail down the Kennebec, we pass many 
^\ old residences whose generous proportions and 
^^^L fair surroundings tell of the ample means of 
^^ their builders in the early part of the nineteenth 

century. There is the fine old Williams mansion in 
Augusta ; the Vaughan mansion in Hallowell, for over a 
century the home of a family eminent for its hospitality 
and social prestige; and the " Oaklands," at Gardiner, 
built after the fashion of the days of Queen Elizabeth ; 
but we must search to-day for the still earlier homes of 
the Kennebec. 

In the year 1763, two hundred and fifty acres of 
land, in the ancient town of Pittston, were granted to 
Major Reuben Colburn, one of our earliest "kings of 
industry." Upon an eminence which slopes gradually 
to the river's shore, Major Colburn built a large two- 
story house which still stands overshadowed by the 
branches of its ancient elms. 

At the time of Arnold's expedition up the Kennebec, 
Major Colburn was commissioned by Washington to 
build two hundred light batteaux for the transportation 
of the troops. While waiting for the completion of 
these boats, General Arnold was entertained at the 
Colburn house ; and the story of his visit, and many 
other Revolutionary tales of which Major Colburn was 
himself the hero, are still told at the hearthstone of this 
old historic mansion. 



92 Old Colonial Houses 

The old Court-House at Dresden was built by the 
Plymouth Company in 1761. It is a massive structure, 
three stories high, with hip-roof and large chimneys, and 
occupies a very conspicuous position on the east shore 
of the Kennebec. Considering the date of its erection, 
and its early associations, this old court-house is one of 
the most notable and monumental buildings in the state ; 
and its records are filled with the names of eminent men 
who made the early history of Pownalborough. 

The court-house was at first enclosed for security 
within the palisades of Fort Shirley ; and for a number 
of years was used as a place of worship as well as a 
court of law. The sessions of the court were held in a 
large chamber forty-five feet long and twenty wide, 
located on the second floor, and fitted with boxes, 
benches, and other necessary conveniences. The remain- 
der of the house was used as a tavern for the accommo- 
dation of those attending court, and many well-known 
men were entertained beneath this ancient roof. 

At the time when the court-house was erected, Dr. 
Sylvester Gardiner was a resident of Pownalborough, 
and Jonathan Bowman, a cousin of John Hancock, soon 
located here as register of deeds. They were joined by 
the Rev. Jacob Bailey, a man of culture and refinement, 
and a devoted Church of England clergyman who was 
sent to Pownalborough by the " Society for Propagating 
the Gospel in Foreign Parts." Other eminent men, who 
were frequent sojourners at this remote hamlet, were 
William Cushing, Charles Cushing, James Sullivan, 
Robert Treat Paine, William Lithgow, Francis Dana 
and James Bridge. "These men," writes Mr. Willis, 
"formed a community as enlightened as it was genial 
and courteous ; " and Williamson, the Maine historian, 
adds : " No town in the district, before the Revolution, 



On the River and Harbor Shores 93 

was so distinguished for able and talented young men as 
Pownalborough. Indeed, it would be rare to find at any 
time, in so small a population, so many refined and 
educated people." 

Charles Cushing, Jonathan Bowman, and the Rev. 
Jacob Bailey were classmates at Harvard College and 
graduated in 1755. They were all at Pownalborough to 
welcome, at the old court-house, a fourth classmate, the 
young barrister, John Adams, when he came here to 
conduct an important land case, in 1765. Adams won 
his suit ; and the favorable impression which he made 
at this time upon Dr. Gardiner, and other wealthy land- 
owners, was of great influence in securing for the young 
lawyer a number of important cases in the Maine courts. 

At the time of Arnold's expedition, the old Dresden 
court-house was occupied by Major Samuel Goodwin, 
surveyor for the Plymouth Company. The house has 
since remained in the Goodwin family, and its present 
owner, a great-grandson of Samuel Goodwin, bears the 
name of his ancestor, the proprietor of pre-Revolutionary 
days. 



In addition to its ancient court-house, Dresden 
possesses a number of fine old homesteads, several of 
which were built in the early colonial period. Among 
these is the Bowman-Carney house, erected about 1765, by 
Jonathan Bowman, barrister and clerk of courts, who 
here entertained John Adams and other lawyers attend- 
ing court at Pownalborough. 

The Bowman-Carney house is located on the Ken- 
nebec about half a mile below the court-house. It is a 
large square building, with hip-roof, great center chimney 
and spacious interior. It is said that nearly all the 



94 Old Colonial Houses 

material for this house was imported from Europe ; and 
the beautiful Dutch tiles which adorned its fireplaces, 
and its hand-carved banisters, wainscottings, and mould- 
ings made it the handsomest house in this part of the 
country. 

The house was purchased in 1805 by James Carney, 
a descendant of one of the early French Huguenot 
settlers of Dresden, whose name was originally Carnet 
or Carne. 1 The old Bowman-Carney house now begins 
to show signs of age but is still one of the most inter- 
esting historic landmarks of the Kennebec valley. 



The oldest house in Dresden is the Gardiner home- 
stead, built by Dr. Sylvester Gardiner in 1754. This 
house is located at Dresden Mills on the shore of the 
Eastern river, and is still well-preserved but somewhat 
modernized by recent renovations. Three generations 
of Gardiners have occupied this old homestead. 

Dr. Sylvester Gardiner also built, about 1756 or 
1758, the interesting Dumaresq house on Swan Island. 
This picturesque old homestead has a colonial portico, 
huge center chimney, and long roof sloping to the rear. 
It was built in the most substantial manner, with a frame 
of white oak, put together with wrought nails. A large 
bay-window has since been added. The house occupies 
a fine location overlooking the river and is surrounded 
by mighty oaks, tall pines, and groups of graceful birch- 
trees. 

This was the home of Miss Jane Frances Rebecca 
Dumaresq, the famous beauty of the Kennebec, who 
married Colonel Thomas H. Perkins of Boston. A 
remarkable pen picture of this charming woman has been 

1 Charles E. Allen, author of "Ancient Pownalborough and Her Daughters." 



On the River and Harbor Shores 95 

left to us by her son, Mr. Augustus Thorndike Perkins, 
who, on one occasion, wrote as follows : 

"My mother came up from Swan Island on the 
Kennebec river where her father lived on an estate 
which he had inherited from his mother, a daughter of 
Sylvester Gardiner, Esq. This gentleman owned some 
hundred thousand acres of land between Bath and 
Gardiner which latter town he founded. Miss Dumaresq 
was making a visit to her relatives, the family of the 
Rev. John Sylvester Gardiner of Trinity Church, in 
Boston. She at once became noted, not only for her 
excessive beauty but also for her grace and charming 
manners. Even as I remember her she was almost the 
most beautiful woman I ever saw. Her figure was 
perfect, as were her teeth and complexion ; but the most 
striking points about her were her eyes — the color of 
dark sapphire — and her hair which was wonderful. I 
have heard of raven hair, but never saw it but on her. 
I have been told that when she was married her hair 
swept the floor when she loosened it. Ordinarily it was 
black, but in the sun I have often seen upon it the sheen 
of steel-colored blue, such as one sees in the sunlight on 
a crow's wing ; and she was as brave as she was beautiful, 
and as courteous and gentle as a long line of ancestors 
of De Carterets and Dumaresqs could make her. ... In 
fact she was an aristocrat to the tips of her fingers, and 
such she remained to the end of her days." l 

This beautiful woman, born in the old Dumaresq 
house on Swan Island, lived in splendid state in her 
Boston home, served by men servants and maid servants 
and a Chinese butler who always wore the gorgeous 
costume of his own country ; but every summer she came 

1 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Second Series, Vol. VII., 
P- 341- 



96 Old Colonial Houses 

with her family to the paradise of the Kennebec where 
she dispensed a delightful hospitality, and frequently 
exchanged visits with her relatives, the Gardiners, at 
the "Oaklands," a few miles farther up the river. 

The little township of Perkins on Swan Island, 
which was the home of Miss Dumaresq, was named in 
honor of her husband, Colonel Thomas H. Perkins. 

Another claimant for honorable old age, on the 
Kennebec, is the Peterson house at Bath. It stands on 
the banks of the river at the north end of High street, 
and is a most interesting type of the individuality which 
often characterizes the old New England dwelling. One 
story in height, but broad and spacious on the ground 
floor, and having a high pointed gable roof, this house 
contains sixteen rooms besides the many closets and 
cupboards with which it is abundantly furnished. Some 
of these closets are very curious in their construction ; 
one near the sitting-room is furnished with peek-holes 
and others have the mysterious charm of movable panels 
and secret doors. The front entrance of the house is 
unusually large. The living-room has a huge open 
fireplace and a wainscotting of mahogany which unfortu- 
nately has been covered by a coat of paint. The great 
brick oven in the kitchen is another reminder of the 
generous living and abundant hospitality of colonial days. 

The Peterson house was built in 1758, by an English 
surveyor, who was granted for his services, five hundred 
acres of land in this locality. In 1798, the house was 
sold to Captain John Peterson. At the time of the 
Revolution, this place was the headquarters of the agent 
of George III., and here occurred some exciting incidents 
which have a prominent place in the early history of 
Bath. 



On the River and Harbor Shores 97 

Among other pre-Revolutionary dwellings in this 
locality are the Isaiah Crocker house built in 1760, and 
the Colonel Dummer Sewall house built in 1764, each of 
which represents a characteristic style of colonial archi- 
tecture. 



A short journey from Bath to Brunswick leads us 
over a level yet picturesque stretch of country where the 
salt breath of the not far distant sea mingles with the 
fragrance of the inland pines and fir-trees. 

The ancient town of Brunswick, with its stately 
homes and classic college halls, at once impresses the 
guest with a realization of its old-time New England 
origin, and of the eminent character of its founders. 
For many years, the distinction of being the oldest 
building in Brunswick belonged to the Robert Thompson 
house which was built, by one of the prominent early 
settlers, in 1740; but, unfortunately, this typical and an- 
cient homestead was destroyed by fire in 1882. Several 
interesting old colonial dwellings, however, still maintain 
their existence in Brunswick; and notable among these is 
the well-known McKeen house built by Samuel Stanwood 
in 1774. This house was purchased in 1804 by President 
McKeen, of Bowdoin College. After his death, in 1807, 
it was occupied by Joseph McKeen, who, like his father, 
became closely identified with the interests of the college, 
having been its honored treasurer for more than thirty 
years. This house is still in the possession of the 
McKeen family, and has been for over a century one of 
the social and intellectual centers of the town. 

The Dunlap-Lincoln house is also remembered as 
the home of several generations of one of the most 
respected and influential families of Brunswick. It was 



98 Old Colonial Houses 

erected by Captain John Dunlap in 1772, and afterwards 
came into the possession of Dr. Isaac Lincoln. It was 
in this old Dunlap-Lincoln house that Talleyrand was 
entertained when he passed through Brunswick on his 
way from Castine to Boston. 

Brunswick also possesses many fine old homes of a 
little later date, built on the early colonial models, and 
filled with antique furniture, rare old china, valuable 
curios, and works of art from foreign lands. 

Preeminent among these homes, which are famous 
for their art treasures and their ancient heirlooms, is 
that of the President of the Maine Society of Colonial 
Dames, Mrs. William Addison Houghton. In this 
charming and hospitable home, many of us have been 
served with tea from the rarest and most exquisite of 
Japanese cups while we feasted our eyes on the almost 
priceless treasures of Japanese art. But these art 
treasures, brought by Professor and Mrs. Houghton 
from Japan, as well as the invaluable Houghton loan 
collection in the Bowdoin Art Museum, are too well and 
widely known to need comment here. It is rather of 
the antique furniture, inherited from remote generations 
of colonial ancestry, that we would make especial 
mention. Here we touch elbows with the ghosts of the 
past, whether we sit in the high-backed, ball-and-claw 
footed chairs of Chippendale's earlier period, or are 
comfortably ensconced at the table in the old mahogany 
armchairs designed by the same famous maker. Here, 
too, in the dining-room, is the large and elegant 
Heppelvvhite sideboard with its antique candelabra and 
rare old silver ; and on the opposite side of the room 
stands a smaller companion sideboard of the same 
exquisite workmanship. In the living-room are mahogany 
tables with claw-feet and acanthus pedestals, and small 



o 
o 

- 
o 

X 

> 
~ 




On the River and Harbor Shores 99 

slender-legged tables of quaint design. An irresistibly 
charming old sofa, with elaborately carved arms and 
feet, also allures the soul of every lover of old furniture. 

But most valuable and interesting of all the inherited 
treasures of our hostess is the incomparable old secretary 
of St. Domingo mahogany. In design and workmanship, 
this old secretary is without a rival in our colonial homes. 
It is a combination of bookcase and writing-desk, with 
carved shelves, curious pigeonholes, and fascinating 
secret drawers. Its lineage is most ancient and honor- 
able, and may be traced directly back to the year 1634. 
It was once the property of Governor Law, son of 
Honorable Richard Law, of Connecticut, and has de- 
scended in a direct family line to its present fortunate 
possessor. By the side of this old secretary stands a 
handsome, high-backed, splay-footed chair, of Dutch 
origin, made in the Queen Anne period. This chair 
was in the possession of Governor Law as early as 1741. 

The pictures of these rare old heirlooms, which we 
have been permitted to copy, are of intrinsic value as 
representing certain famous styles of colonial household 
furniture ; but the distinctive atmosphere of the home, 
of which they are but a material part, cannot be repro- 
duced by the art of the photographer. 



Just south of Brunswick, the ancient town of 
Harpswell stretches its long gray arms into the sea, and 
here, set sturdily on its barren but firm foundations, 
stands the Deacon Andrew Dunning house. This is the 
oldest house on Harpswell Neck. It was built in 1757. 
It is a large two-story house with a front porch, and has 



ioo Old Colonial Houses 

the air of having been the home of one of the most 
prominent families of the community. 

Across an inlet of the sea are the picturesque shores 
made famous by Mrs. Stowe in her story of the "Pearl 
of Orr's Island." Here may still be seen the low, wide- 
spreading, gambrel-roofed cottage which was built by 
Joseph Orr in 1756. 



As we thus continue our search for old colonial 
houses, we soon come to realize how important is the 
human element in the story, and how quickly a bit of 
personal history or romance invests the conventional four 
square walls of the old-time houses with a new and never 
failing interest. One would hardly expect, however, 
even upon our romantic Maine coast, to come in contact 
with royalty or even to touch the borders of its garments, 
and yet we have our Marie Antoinette house to which 
still clings an interesting tradition of the beautiful and 
unfortunate Queen of France. 

This house is frequently designated as the Clough 
house. It is situated in Edgecome, opposite Wiscasset, 
and, according to well authenticated family records, was 
once designed as a refuge for Marie Antoinette during the 
reign of terror in France. The story of this house is 
quite remarkable. It was first erected on Squam Island, 
and was for many years a conspicuous landmark at the 
entrance of Wiscasset harbor. It was built originally 
for Captain Joseph Decker in 1774, x and is described as a 
stately mansion of the Virginia plantation style of 
architecture. In 1792, this fine manor house came into 
the possession of Captain Stephen Clough who might 
have been instrumental in saving the life of Queen Marie 

1 Collections of The Maine Historical Society, Series II., Vol. V., p. 286. 



On the River and Harbor Shores 101 

Antoinette, had not fate decreed otherwise. The story- 
is that Captain Clough, with his good ship "Sally," was 
on the coast of France in 1793; and that a plan was 
made at that time to save the life of Marie Antoinette by- 
conveying her secretly on board Captain Clough 's vessel 
and bringing her to America. Some articles of furniture 
and of the queen's wardrobe, were placed on board the 
" Sally," but the queen was arrested on the eve of sailing 
and delivered over to the revolutionary mob. Thus the 
Clough mansion never sheltered the unfortunate queen, 
as its master fondly hoped ; but the royal furniture and 
finery came safely into Wiscasset on the "Sally." 
Among the souvenirs brought home by Captain Clough 
were " French tapestries, marquetry, silverware, rare 
vases, clocks, costly furniture, and no end of apparelling 
fit for a queen." There was even a piece of the white 
death robe worn by Marie Antoinette upon the guillotine, 
a sacred relic treasured to this day by the descendants of 
Captain Clough who was himself present at the execution. 
There was also a satin robe, once worn by Louis XVI., 
king of France, which, with genuine New England 
thrift, was "made over" for Captain Clough's wife, who 
doubtless trailed these robes of royalty over the sand 
and rocks of Squam Island with great satisfaction. 

A question naturally arises as to what became of all 
these valuable relics. The only answer tradition gives 
is that many of them were sent to the famous Swan 
house at Dorchester whose owner, Colonel Swan, was 
connected with Captain Clough in the shipping business. 
Other articles were scattered and lost ; while some are 
still in possession of the Clough family. 

A number of beautiful chairs and vases went to the 
family of the late Judge Silas Lee of Wiscasset ; and an 
inlaid, semi-circular, French mahogany sideboard sur- 



102 Old Colonial Houses 

mounted by a large silver urn went to the Swan house, 
thence to the Knox mansion in Maine (on the marriage 
of Miss Swan to the son of General Knox), and subse- 
quently came into the possession of Honorable J. P. 
Baxter of Portland. 

The old Clough house, which thus missed the honor 
and privilege of sheltering the queen of France, stood on 
Squam Island until 1838, and then had the curious 
experience of being moved, by land and water, to the 
opposite shores of Edgecomb. It is a fact that this great 
house, of solid oak frame, was rolled onto large flat boats 
and ferried across the river to the mainland, and then 
drawn by oxen to its present site where it now overlooks 
the Sheepscot and has the appearance of being on 
immovable foundations. It is still occupied by the 
descendants of Captain Clough, and a great -great grand- 
daughter, named Marie Antoinette, now tells the long- 
cherished traditions of the house. 



The banks of the Damariscotta river presented 
great attractions to our early settlers and many ancient 
houses still stand upon its shores. In the town of 
Damariscotta there is a very old and interesting house 
which was built by Nathaniel Chapman in 1754. In 
later years it became the home of Rev. Adoniram Judson 
and subsequently of Rev. Duncan Dunbar. It is now 
called the Tilden Hall house. 

The old Joseph Glidden house built in 1760 stands 
in Newcastle near the famous oyster banks ; and farther 
up the river is the old Waters mansion built in 1768. 
This is a substantial, square, two-story house which once 
served as an inn and gave the welcome of its great open 
fires to Lafayette and Talleyrand when they sojourned 



/* 



On the River and Harbor Shores 103 

here on their way to visit General Knox at Thomaston. 

In the neighboring town of Waldoborough stands 
the old Smouse house which was erected sometime 
prior to 1772. The builder of this house, one Daniel 
Holtzapple, must have been a member of that colony of 
Germans who, according to the pathetic inscription in 
the Waldoborough cemetery, "emigrated to this place 
with the promise and expectation of finding a populous 
city, instead of which they found nothing but a wilder- 
ness." But their faith and courage never failed. They 
cleared the land, built homes for their families, and, 
about the year 1772, erected the ancient Lutheran 
church which now stands on Meeting-house Hill. 

This old church at Waldoborough is one of a group 
of three remarkable old meeting-houses located in this 
part of Maine. The second, at Alna, was built just after 
the Revolution ; but the third, known as the Walpole 
meeting-house, was erected in 1772; and its ancient 
high-backed pews, its spacious galleries, and its massive 
carved pulpit, surmounted by a sounding-board, have 
fortunately been preserved to the present day. 

No sketch of colonial history in Maine, however 
brief, would be complete without a reference to the 
shores of ancient Pemaquid ; and the visitor on this 
romantic coast finds himself at once submerged in its 
historic and legendary past. If a record of all that has 
occurred within sight of Pemaquid Rock could have been 
preserved, many volumes would be required to tell the 
tale. There would be stories of the Scandinavian 
vikings, of Spanish explorers, and of adventurers from 
many lands ; of pirates, smugglers, captains and sailors of 
high and low degree ; of brave cavaliers with sword and 



104 Old Colonial Houses 

plume ; of humble missionaries with gown and cross ; 
and of heroic English men and women who first dwelt 
in this fair land of Mavooshen. 

Very realistic and terribly true, also, are the tales of 
Indian war and massacre, of siege and pillage, and battles 
by land and sea, when stripped of the glamour of these 
" far-off, forgotten things ; " and a substantial evidence 
of this rich historic past remains in the mass of ruins 
which mark the site of the old colonial stronghold, Fort 
William Henry. 

These ruins, which consist chiefly of a huge heap of 
cobble stones, have lain for more than two hundred years 
almost completely buried in the sands. They are to-day 
the nearest approach to a pre-Revolutionary structure 
which exists at Pemaquid ; yet they are full of possibilities ; 
and the devoted student of our old colonial records, and 
all lovers of Maine's historic past, now dream of the 
day — and may it not be far distant — when these ancient 
stones shall rise from the sand, and when the great round 
tower of Fort William Henry shall be rebuilt from its 
original material to stand as a perpetual monument of the 
history of Ancient Pemaquid. 



As we began our study of old colonial houses, at 
Kittery Point, on the western verge of the state, it is 
fitting that we should come at last to the eastern border 
of our "hundred-harbored Maine," and rest from our 
travels within the hospitable walls of the old Burnham 
Tavern at Machias. This ancient hostelry was built in 
1770 and still retains its original clapboards, windows, 
and interior finish. It is the only house in eastern Maine 
which has a Revolutionary War record. 



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On the River and Harbor Shores 105 

The Battle of Machias Bay, in which the British ves- 
sel, the " Margaretta, " was captured by the patriots of the 
town, was the first naval engagement of the Revolution 
and took place on June 12th, 1775. The plans for this 
encounter were formulated in the great living-room of the 
Burnham Tavern. Here the patriots gathered to discuss 
the exciting news of the battle of Concord and Lexington. 
Here they resolved to erect a liberty-pole upon the green 
and defend it with their blood. The captain of the 
British vessel in the harbor threatened to destroy the 
town unless the liberty-pole was taken down ; but before 
the threat could be carried out, the men of Machias had 
manned a vessel, sailed down the harbor, and after a brief 
battle, captured the "Margaretta" and her crew. 

The wounded sailors of the " Margaretta " were taken 
to the Burnham Tavern where the east room was turned 
into a hospital. The indomitable commander of the 
British vessel, Captain Moore, made a gallant defense, 
but was mortally wounded at the beginning of the fight. 
He was taken to the home of Stephen Jones where every 
effort was made for his recovery ; but he died on the day 
following the battle. Captain Moore was a brave young 
Irishman who in spite of his order for the destruction of 
the town, had won the respect of the inhabitants of 
Machias, and his death was greatly regretted by the 
people who were charitable enough to give him credit for 
his loyalty to the crown. He was, moreover betrothed 
to a niece of Stephen Jones. This beautiful young 
lady, then a guest at Machias, was literally heart-broken 
at the death of her lover. These sad circumstances 
still give an undertone of pathos to the story of "the 
first naval battle of the Revolution " which is so often 
told with local pride and patriotism at the hearthstone 
of the old Burnham Tavern. 



106 Old Colonial Houses 

Such were some of the old colonial homes whose 
hearth-fires were lighted long before our Revolutionary 
ancestors set the torch of liberty ablaze, and thus severed 
our connection with the mother country. 

These houses may still be seen standing along the 
coast of Maine, upon our river shores, and on the hillsides 
of our inland towns. Some of them are weather-beaten, 
empty, and desolate ; their windows are broken, their 
chimneys shattered, and the dust and ashes dead upon 
their thresholds. Others are sound, stately, and well- 
preserved, still bearing with alertness and vigor the 
burden of many successive generations. 

The most of these houses were large and handsome 
in their prime and quite worthy of the name of "mansion, " 
or "great house," which was commonly bestowed upon 
them. They still stand as monuments, not only of the 
individual life, but of the general and characteristic life, 
of the early colonial settlers. They tell of the hardships, 
the sufferings, the struggles, the joys, the sorrows, the 
hopes, the faith — that wonderful and supreme faith — of 
our ancestors ; and sitting at these ancient, dimly-lighted 
hearthstones, we learn to know and revere the men and 
women who were the founders and upbuilders of our 
state. 



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